The Future Disaster
by Taurus Pixie
Summary: Sonic was just enjoying quality time with his friends until a mysterious young hedgehog appears begging for help. He now must race to a dystopian future where horrifying creatures are terrorizing the world to save his friends and future self. But as he travels through his future, our favourite blue hero soon realises the future is more twisted than it originally appeared.
1. The Visitor

**A new story which I hope you enjoy. This idea refuses to leave me alone so I thought I'd write it**

**Rated T for mild language and violence. I do not own anything. It all belongs to Sega. No copyright infringement is intended and I'm making no money out of this. I've just wrote this for fun.**

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**~ The Future Disaster ~**

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**I: The Visitor**

"Come on Sonic!" Tails moaned in annoyance. "Just tell me what's going on."

Sonic pretended to think for a moment before he pulled a blindfold out from behind his back.

"Nope." He laughed. "This is way more fun."

Tails tried to protest as Sonic pulled him away from the Tornado and wrapped the blindfold around Tails' eyes.

"I'm so getting you back for this." The twin tailed fox threatened as Sonic began to push his little brother through the workshop, making sure he didn't trip over any tools that had been left lying around.

"I swear Sonic, if you make me walk into a wall – "

The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes. "I am shocked Tails. Shocked that you don't trust me." He laughed as he continued to guide Tails out the door and towards the fox's home where the surprise was waiting.

The front door was now decorated with balloons for the occasion and streamers lined the tops of the windows of the house Sonic and Tails shared together.

Sonic smirked as he opened the door where everyone was waiting then guided Tails inside.

"Can I take the silly thing off yet?" Tails demanded.

"Go for it buddy." Sonic chuckled.

Tails all but ripped the blindfold off his face and jumped back in shock.

"Surprise!" Everyone yelled. "Happy birthday Tails!"

Sonic laughed as he reached under the fox's chin to close his mouth for him.

"Was this your idea?" Tails accused Sonic as he smiled at him.

"Well you've been working so hard lately, I figured you deserved the best." Sonic beamed down at his young friend.

"Thanks guys." Tails said to everybody as Cream fastened a party hat to his head.

"Let's party!" Vector yelled into a small microphone as he began to play music at the little DJ area in the corner. Charmy inserted a CD and soon music filled the room.

Some people started dancing while others made their way towards the food. Sonic helped himself to a chilli dog as he watched Tails interact with their friends. He found it hard to believe that he was looking at the same shy little fox he had met years ago. He was one of Sonic's first friends and now thought of him as his own little brother. Now the kid was nine and Sonic wanted to him to celebrate in style after all the help he has given over the years.

"Wanna dance Sonic?"

Sonic cringed as he heard the all too familiar high pitched voice and looked up to see Amy stood next to him smiling away. The pink hedgehog was so persistent and it drove Sonic insane.

"Err…no thanks Amy. I'm cool hanging out here." He tried to let her down gently.

"Maybe later then." Amy chirped happily and skipped off to go and dance with Cream.

Sonic shook his head in annoyance. At least she wasn't going on about getting married and having children again. He didn't think that chilli dog would taste as good on the way up as it did on the way down.

"Great party Sonic." Knuckles said as he came over and stood next to him.

"Yeah, Tails deserves it." Sonic answered smiling at how much fun everyone was having. Vector and Charmy were arguing over music while Espio shook his head. Blaze had come to visit from her dimension for the occasion and was now dancing with Cream and Amy. Shadow was sulking in the corner and Tails was accepting a gift off Silver who had also come to visit. Everyone was so happy and Sonic didn't think Eggman could ruin anything this time.

"Hey!" Knuckles suddenly called out loudly making Sonic jump slightly. "Where do you think you're going bat girl!"

Sonic then watched as Knuckles ran after Rouge who was trying to sneak out of the door, no doubt after the master emerald again.

He laughed to himself and was about to reach for another chilli dog when he felt something warm pulling at his leg. He looked down and didn't see anything there before shrugging. He was about to take a bite when he felt it again and looked down to see a small gloved hand disappearing under the table.

"Psst!" He heard whoever was hiding under the table hiss. It sounded like a girl. Sonic looked around before bending down to investigate.

He pulled up the table cloth a saw a small sky blue hedgehog laying low and looking around behind Sonic. Her quills were wild and more untidy than Sonic's and was wearing some simple black and white sneakers and an outfit that looked fairly similar to Blaze's except this girl's was in dark blue and didn't have any ruffles on the sleeves.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked, surprised that this girl had managed to sneak in here.

"Sky." She answered looking at Sonic slightly unsure. "You're Sonic the hedgehog right?"

"That's me." He grinned at her.

"I really need your help." Sky begged as she pleaded with Sonic with her eyes which were a similar shade to his own.

"Is it important?" Sonic asked. "It's my friend's birthday."

"I'm sorry, but it's more important than you could ever imagine." Sky explained, her eyes focused intensely on Sonic in a way that made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

Sky huffed as Sonic continued to look uncertain at the strange girl hiding under the table.

"Please." Sky begged. "My world is in serious danger and my dad is in huge trouble. I wouldn't have asked unless I was truly desperate and only you can help me."

Sonic sighed. "Alright, let's move. I'm sure Tails will understand if I'm not back by the end of the party."

Sky's eyes lit up. "Thank you thank you thank you." She chanted as she crawled awkwardly out from under the table.

Sonic led her through the crowd filled with his friends and luckily no one seemed to notice the strange party crasher. Sonic looked down at the little girl next to him and thought about how small and vulnerable she looked as she barely came up to the middle of his arm and thought about how desperate she was for his help. What did she mean when she said her world? Was she from another planet?

They made their way through the dancing bodies and finally made it to the hallway where the walls were decorated with lots of pictures from previous adventures and Sky seemed fascinated by every single one of them.

Suddenly Amy came around the corner from the kitchen where Sonic was heading and Sky gasped before quickly hiding behind Sonic.

"Hey Sonic, how about that dance?" Amy asked as she shyly looked down at her red boots.

"Sorry Amy, but I'm kind of busy right now." Sonic said trying to hide how annoyed he was with her.

Amy huffed. "You never have time for me."

Sonic flinched as he thought she was going to bring her hammer out but sighed with relief when she stormed off back to where the party was.

He turned round to Sky who had hidden behind him the whole time and was shocked to see that she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

"Are you ok kid?" Sonic asked before she shook her head.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said and Sonic continued to lead her through the kitchen and out the back door.

"Can you tell me what's been going on?" Sonic turned around to ask the small hedgehog but soon looked around the back garden in confusion when he saw she wasn't there anymore.

"What the?" He mumbled before calling, "Sky?"

"Over here." He heard her call from the bottom of a hill a few metres away.

"You're one sly kid." He noted as he ran towards her and was at her side within a second.

"Thanks." She said with a cheeky grin.

"So where do we need to go? I am the fastest thing alive so I'll have us there before you know it." Sonic bragged as he stretched his legs from side to side, warming up. He hadn't had the chance to have a good run today due to organising Tails' party.

"Oh, that won't be necessary." Sky smiled and pulled out the green chaos emerald. Sonic looked at it in shock.

"Isn't that Shadow's? Kid you're going to be in serious trouble if you stole it." Sonic warned and Sky rolled her eyes.

"Relax Sonic, I didn't steal it, I'll explain when we get there." Sky laughed.

Sonic didn't look convinced as he stared at the young hedgehog. If Sky had stolen it off Shadow, which seemed to be the most likely explanation, then Sonic would have a hard time stopping the psychopathic black hedgehog from coming after her. As much as Sonic hated to admit it, he would have a hard time defending the little girl from Shadow.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Sky yelled and before both of them could even blink, they were gone in a flash of bright light and travelling through time and space.

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	2. Future Shock

**Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad you seem to like it so far. I own nothing.**

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**II: Future Shock**

"Where the hell are we?" Sonic asked as he looked around the dark and gloomy landscape around him. There weren't any leaves on the grey, dead and lifeless trees and the grass was brown and crispy beneath his shoes. There was a cold mist in the air that sent a shiver to Sonic's bones and the moon was barely visible in the dark sky.

"Oh no." Sky gasped. "They've taken over another area."

"Who?" Sonic asked.

"The shadow demons." Sky whispered their names before shivering and looking around frantically. "My father should've been here."

Sonic looked back at the little light blue hedgehog and sighed.

"I'm sure that together we can look for your father." He tried to say cheerfully to cheer her up. "But where are we?" He asked looking around again.

"Green Hill." Sky sighed and Sonic froze in shock.

"What? How is that even possible? What's going on?" Sonic demanded looking around in confusion.

"Welcome to the future Sonic." Sky said pretending to be excited as she extended her arms and gestured to the waste land around them.

Sonic took a step back as he tried to absorb that information.

"How far in the future are we?" He asked as he looked in disgust at how someone could destroy such a once beautiful area. No birds were singing, no animals were playing and no flowers were blooming. Everything was just dead. As if the life has been sucked out of everything.

"I'm not too sure." Sky finally replied. "This is my time but I wasn't sure how far into the past I travelled to come and see you. I was being chased when I used chaos control and didn't pay attention to where I was going, but I'm guessing I didn't travel that far into the past. How old are you?"

"Fifteen." Sonic replied and Sky hummed deep in thought.

"But what happened?" Sonic demanded bringing Sky out of her daydream.

"The shadow demons." Sky explained. "About a year ago, Dr Eggman managed to access the underworld. Naturally he wanted to harness its power and build his little empire or whatever he calls it, but all the spirits and demons trapped under there leaked out and began running wild. It's throwing the balance of nature off as the dead are now interacting with the living and the shadow demons are sucking the life out of everything living thing they come across. After my father left I ran away from home to help out and ran into Shadow. He gave me his chaos emerald so I could look after myself while he got the shadow demons off my back but then some of them caught up with me and I panicked. My father was supposed to be battling them here right now, that's why I brought you here. If anyone can help, you can."

"But what about the future version of myself. Aren't I doing anything? Why do you need me?" Sonic asked in confusion. He couldn't believe Eggman would stoop so low – no pun intended.

"Well you were helping, until you went missing in action." Sky explained carefully and sadly. "No one knows where you've gone."

Sonic sighed and looked deep into the forest of dead trees before finally speaking up.

"Well, we're not going to find out just standing here are we? Let's get going kid." He said now determined to help out. Sky wasn't kidding around when she said it was bad.

Sky looked up at him and managed a small smile before they both took off into the forest. Sonic was careful to run at her pace and not leave her behind.

"So where should we head to first?" Sonic asked as they ran through the dead trees.

"No idea." Sky answered. "I'm making this up as I go along."

"That's generally what I do best." Sonic said with a grin.

They slowed when they saw colour on the horizon. The grass was becoming greener and the trees looked to have a bit more life in them and flowers were beginning to appear. It was like hoping from a separate painting where one was coloured and the other wasn't. The heat of the sun hit their faces and Sky breathed a sigh of relief once they were out of shadow demon territory.

"At least they haven't taken over this area." Sonic remarked as he smiled at a group of beautiful white flowers.

"Yeah, but I don't doubt for a minute that they haven't got their eyes on this place." Sky said sadly as she looked back at the dark and dead area that was receding behind them as they ran.

They both came to a stop as soon as the shadow territory was out of sight and Sky sat down on a rock hopelessly.

"Well, now that we're out of that horrid place, I have no idea where to go next." She sighed as she stroked a finger against the smooth surface of the rock and Sonic looked at her and sighed at how sad she looked.

"Well, do you have any idea where your dad might be kid?" He asked carefully, worried about upsetting her.

She shrugged before huffing in irritation.

"No idea, he was supposed to be in battle back there, I don't know if he's run off, been captured or…" Sky gasped as she came to terms with what the other option might be and Sonic panicked not wanting to see the little girl cry.

"Hey, I'm sure it won't come to that." Sonic said as gently as he could.

"True, my father is pretty relentless. All the times we thought all hope was lost he came springing back." She chuckled slightly before her face fell into a frown again. "He is going to kill me when he finds out what I've done." She gulped.

"You mean came to get me?" Sonic asked smirking. "Not wanting his little girl in on the action?"

Sky looked up and glared at him. "I am not a little girl and I can join in the action any time." She said jumping off the rock and standing up straight, trying to look tough and strong. "He's just really over protective, but I can't just sit by and do nothing while innocent people suffer."

Sonic chuckled. "You sound just like me."

Sky blinked and then looked around awkwardly.

"Well, a lot of the time you are my inspiration." She said biting her lip.

Sonic rolled his eyes. Sure he loved helping people, but he never wanted to seek any praise for it. He had enough of Amy fangirling over him, but he didn't particularly want Sky to idolize him either. She seemed like a good enough kid and he didn't want her to waste her life trying to be like him.

"You don't have to act like me you know." Sonic tried to reassure her.

Sky smirked before mumbling, "Sometimes I can't help it."

Sonic ignored her and began walking in a random direction. Sky began following him without a word.

"Why don't we go back to your family?" Sonic suggested and Sky's eyes widened. "They might offer some help or some clues as to what might have happened or your dad might be back there."

"No no no!" Sky said desperately as she began to panic. "We can't go there."

Sonic was spooked by her sudden reaction. "Ok, fine. I just thought you might want your family and they could help us."

Sky took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. "Trust me, going back there is the worst thing we could do."

"Why?" Sonic pressed as the woods began to thin and make way for giant fields that stretched out for miles.

"I don't want to risk putting them in danger." Sky explained. "The shadow demons know who I am now and I don't want to get my younger siblings involved in this. Plus, I can't let them see you."

Sonic snorted. "Why not?"

Sky didn't say anything for a few seconds as she thought about her answer carefully. "Because they'll see what I've done and I'll be grounded for eternity."

Sonic couldn't help himself as he burst out laughing and Sky shot him a glare.

"Ok then, no families." Sonic laughed before becoming serious again and tapping his finger against his cheek as he thought. "Now if I was my future self where would I hide?"

Sky waited patiently as Sonic thought.

"I might've gone to look for Tails, do you know who he is?" Sonic asked and Sky beamed and nodded.

"How do you know all my friends anyway? Do your parents become friends of mine or something?" Sonic asked smiling as he thought of all the possible new friends and allies he might meet in the future and it seemed as though he was meeting one of his future friends right now.

"Err yeah." Sky answered.

"Cool." Sonic replied excited. "I love making new friends."

Sky rolled her eyes and looked out into the open fields. "So you think your future self might be with Tails huh?"

"Possibly; it's usually where I always go when I need something important. Maybe my future self is just biding his time." Sonic explained as they began to speed up. "Then maybe my future self can help find your father."

"I don't doubt that you will." Sky said refusing to look Sonic in the face.

"Do you know something I don't?" Sonic asked accusingly, picking up on her weird behaviour.

"Oh no, I'm just nervous. First adventure and everything." She said still not looking at him.

"This is just another day for me." Sonic laughed before scooping the small sky blue hedgehog into his arms and taking off at the speed of sound towards where Tails lived.

He finally came to a stop when they arrived outside where Tails lived. Sonic set Sky down gently and kept his arms out, expecting the girl to collapse like everyone else did when they travelled at Sonic's speed. He was shocked to find the girl keeping her balance and seeming alright with what had happened.

"You know you're the first person who hasn't fainted after going on a run with me." Sonic laughed.

Sky laughed with him. "Strong stomach I guess, but what are we doing here?"

"This is where Tails lives." Sonic explained looking towards the house, but stopped short when he saw how overgrown the outside looked and the windows had been boarded up. It hadn't looked like anyone had lived there in years.

"Well done genius, this is the future remember? Tails doesn't live here anymore." Sky explained.

Sonic laughed awkwardly trying to cover up his mistake. "Right, my bad."

Sonic and Sky both jumped when they heard a sudden shrieked behind them. They turned around to see the most horrific looking creature emerge out of the trees.

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	3. Shadow Demons

**I own nothing.**

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**III: Shadow Demons**

Sonic gasped at the strange and horrifying creatures before him. He had faced many enemies over the years, but nothing that looked like this. Although, they appeared mainly human in shape, they looked like they had just crawled out of the deep pits of hell.

The three that had emerged from the forest were all a deep black colour and appeared slightly blurred around the edges as if they were a hologram. They had no faces, only cold emotionless white eyes in the middle of what looked like a head and the repulsive smell of death seemed to follow them. Sonic almost gagged at the smell and Sky cringed back in fear.

"The bad guys I presume." Sonic stated as he crouched into a defensive position, ready to fight them.

The creatures didn't say anything as the one in the middle slowly pointed towards Sky. Sky glared back, but didn't say anything.

The other shadow demons seemed to understand the signal and began to slowly drift towards the two blue hedgehogs. The grass underneath them turned brown with every slow step.

"Oh no you don't." Sonic snarled as he spin dashed towards them.

"Sonic no!" Sky yelled as Sonic's attack failed as he fell right through the creatures as if they didn't exist at all.

Sonic gasped as he dashed through their cold bodies as his attack had no effect on them. He managed to turn around and saw them heading relentlessly towards Sky who held her ground. Sonic had to admit that he was impressed with this kid's guts.

The shadow demon in the middle stopped in front of her and held out a deformed hand towards her. Sky looked at it in confusion as the shadow demon continued to beckon the girl to come with him.

"What do they want with you?" Sonic demanded as he dashed in front of Sky to block her from their view.

This angered the creatures as they let out an ear splitting screech and were about to swipe at Sonic before Sky pulled out the green chaos emerald. The creatures froze and stared at it with their white eyes for a few seconds before they began shrieking and spluttering again while Sky and Sonic watched in confusion. They burst into flames and then within seconds they had disappeared.

"Whoa." Sonic breathed. "Great idea Sky."

"What do you mean?" Sky asked. "I just pulled it out so I could give it to you, I didn't know that would happen."

"So, I guess those creatures can't go near a chaos emerald." Sonic noted as he stared at where the creatures had disappeared in wonder.

"Seems that way." Sky agreed. "Maybe that's why Shadow gave it to me. That hedgehog is always one step ahead. He gave it to me to protect me." She added sounding slightly emotional.

"Shadow a friend of yours?" Sonic asked in astonishment. Shadow wasn't friends with anybody.

"Not really." Sky said shaking her head. "I rarely see him, but he's always looked out for me and my brothers and sister."

Sonic chuckled. "He always had a soft spot for kids."

Sky snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm not your average kid."

"Tell me about it. You were so brave against the creatures."

Sky smiled at the compliment and handed the chaos emerald to Sonic. "You know what to do with it more than I do."

"Thanks." Sonic said as he put it away. "So where does Tails live now?"

"He lives a few miles outside of Westopolis." Sky explained. "Unless he's had those creatures after him and he had to run away."

"Westopolis it is then." Sonic said as he scooped the young girl into his arms again and began running back through the fields.

"So, do you know all my friends then?" Sonic asked trying to make conversation as the world around them blurred past.

"I think so." Sky answered.

"Are you friends with my future self?" Sonic was desperate to know as much about his future as possible. He was so interested in finding out everything he was destined to get up to.

"I guess you could say that yeah." Sky replied. "Though, I haven't seen you around in a while. You've been really busy with this whole shadow demon thing."

"Do I get up to anything good? Anymore cool adventures." Sonic asked excitedly.

Sky's face suddenly turned very dark and this made Sonic falter in his running slightly.

"Hey, what's with the face?" Sonic asked worriedly. "What happens to me?"

"It's not nothing really and not my place to say. You could always ask your future self if we find you." Sky chose her answer carefully. "I don't want to reveal too much, I don't want to create anymore paradoxes than I have to." She gulped.

"I've met a past version of myself before. Time travel isn't new to me." Sonic reassured her.

"So I've heard." Sky said. "It was so weird seeing the past versions of everyone at that party."

Sonic chuckled. "I hope we all don't look too old in this time zone. Hey, I don't have any wrinkles do I?" Sonic asked shuddering and Sky giggled.

"No." She replied. "I told you, we aren't that far into the future."

"How do you think Tails will react to seeing me?" Sonic asked.

Sky shrugged as best she could in Sonic's arms. "Dunno. I imagine he won't be happy with me, go on about how dangerous and reckless it was and how my dad will kill me when he finds out what I've been doing."

Sonic laughed. "Your dad sounds pretty over protective. A little danger is what makes life fun and exciting. Besides if I was him, I think I'd be grateful for the help."

Sky looked at him weirdly before looking on ahead where tall buildings were beginning to appear over the horizon. The sun was high in the sky as midday struck and luckily there wasn't a shadow demon in sight.

"So where about does Tails live again?" Sonic asked as he ran around the outskirts of the city. Sky pointed in the direction he needed to go and Sonic began to speed up.

They then arrived in a small little village with beautiful cottages. The road was made of cobbled stone and every house had all sorts of beautiful flowers and trees growing outside. A few Mobians were out in the gardens and on the streets doing various activities and as Sonic placed Sky down on the ground, she froze when she saw all the people outside.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." She gulped before looking down defeated.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked as he took a step forward to enter the village. He gasped as Sky yanked him back and pulled him round to hide behind a tree with a surprising amount of strength.

"We can't have anyone recognising you." Sky hissed as she peered around the tree trunk to check if they had been spotted.

"Huh? Why would that be such a bad thing?" Sonic demanded, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Because they'll be asking all sorts of questions and I want to keep my plan on a need to know bases. Some people here can be gossipers and I don't want all those demons finding out. They find the future you enough as a threat as it is and we need the element of surprise. I'm just glad my family isn't staying here at the moment." Sky said.

"This is where you live? It's beautiful." Sonic commented.

"Thanks." Sky said. "That house on the end is mine, but we had to leave because the shadow demons were after us."

"Why you?" Sonic asked.

Sky sighed. "I don't know. Probably to use us against my dad or something."

Sonic whistled lowly at this information. These shadow demons didn't seem to have any principals. He hoped that he could help his future self defeat the shadow people so Sky and her family wouldn't have to hide anymore.

Sonic peered his head around the tree and decided the best way to get past them was to maybe run with Sky to the back door of Tails' house. Hopefully when going really fast, no one would spot them.

"I've got a plan." Sonic said turning around to speak to Sky, but stopped when he realised she was gone. He looked around for her and was beginning to think she might have been kidnapped when he heard her voice calling for him a few feet away outside one of the cottages.

"Over here." She hissed at him while looking around to see if anyone had noticed her.

Sonic quickly dashed over there and looked at her in confusion.

"How the hell did you get over here so fast and without being seen?" He asked.

"I ran when no one was looking." She answered flatly.

Sonic was about to question her again before she grabbed hold of his arm and yanked him towards a back door with honeysuckle wrapped around the doorframe.

"I know Tails is your best friend and everything, but it's important that I do the talking." Sky explaining seriously while giving Sonic a firm glare.

"I don't understand why, but ok." He answered before Sky timidly knocked on the door.

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	4. Future Tails

**Thanks for the reviews and adding this story to favourites and all that jazz. I own nothing.**

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**IV: Future Tails**

Sonic waiting with great anticipation as the future version of his best friend opened the back door. He felt his heart hammering in his chest as the door was slowly pulled open and Sonic gasped when Tails finally appeared.

His little brother had certainly gotten taller by a few inches. He didn't seem to have changed much only he appeared more tired looking, but his eyes still lit up when he caught sight of little Sky.

"Sky, oh thank goodness you're alright." Tails said as he reached down to hug the sky blue hedgehog.

"Your mother is worried sick and is out looking everywhere for you. I'm taking you to her right now." Tails said firmly and pulled out of the hug to grab Sky by the arm and began to pull her inside the house.

"No Tails wait." Sky begged and Tails froze at the urgency of her tone.

Tails then looked up and caught sight of Sonic who waved awkwardly at the twin tailed fox.

Tails then unexpectedly reached forward and pulled both of them inside the cottage and locked the door tightly behind them.

"Hello to you too Tails." Sonic huffed as he rubbed his arm in annoyance.

Tails ignored him and glare at Sky.

"Sky, what have you done?" He asked carefully.

Sky cleared her throat awkwardly and played with one of her quills to look as innocent as possible.

"This is Sonic from the past." She said slowly gesturing towards a confused looking Sonic.

Tails sighed and rubbed his chin with one gloved hand.

"I know who it is Sky, my question is what exactly you have done."

Sky gulped and fiddling awkwardly with her hands. "Well, after my father left for battle, I may have sort of run away to help out, but then those shadow demons came after me. Then Shadow appeared and helped me out before giving me his chaos emerald and told me to run and go back home, only I kind of didn't listen and decided to get help from the only other person good enough to help Sonic, but then I got chased again and used chaos control to bring Sonic from the past to the future. Funny story right?"

Tails sighed. "Your dad is going to murder you."

Sky threw herself on her hands and knees in front of him before clasping her hands out in front of her. "I know I did a bad thing, but I just wanted to help. Don't tell my dad if you see him, let me do it, it might soften the blow if it comes from me."

Tails sighed again. "Oh I'm definitely staying out of this one. You're too much like your father for your own good." He said before whispering something in her ear that Sonic couldn't hear. Whatever Tails asked, Sky shook head in reply.

"Don't tell." She whispered back.

Tails seemed to reluctantly nod his head before turning towards Sonic.

"So what do you think of the future so far?" He asked. "Can I get you anything?"

"Seems just dandy." Sonic replied. "And no thanks. Do you know where my future self is? I said I'd help Sky find her dad and save the day."

"No I haven't seen Sonic for weeks now, not since he left to fight. I can't think of where he could've gone." Tails answered sadly as he led them out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"I hope he's ok." Sky mumbled sadly.

"If I know Sonic, I'm sure he's just fine. Right Sonic?" Tails said looking at him.

"This is getting confusing, but yes I'm sure he's – I mean I'm fine uhhh." Sonic rolled his eyes as he thought about how confusing this whole thing was getting.

Sky sighed and leaned against the wall as Tails and Sonic's reassurance didn't seem to have cheered her up.

Tails looked around awkwardly as Sonic made his way over to a wall full of pictures. A few of them he recognised from his past adventures, but there were a lot of new ones. Sonic was particularly interested in the one's he was in and smiled at the all things he was doing the photos. It seemed like he was going to have an action packed future and it didn't look like he was going to change much over the years. He was about to look at the one's on the shelves when Tails and Sky both suddenly gasped and ripped it off the mantel piece.

Sonic turned around to see what the hell they were playing at and saw them both hiding the image behind their back.

"What are you hiding?" Sonic narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Nothing." Sky smiled innocently.

"It's just a really embarrassing picture and I'd rather you not tell my past self about it." Tails explained.

Sonic laughed. "Really Tails, even in the future you're still a bad liar."

Their conversation was interrupted however, when a very small fox toddled into the room.

"Daddy, I thought I heard Sky's voice." The small fox said as he clutched a small teddy bear to his furry chest. "Didn't she move away?"

Sonic looked at the young fox in shock. He was the spitting image of Tails only this fox had brown eyes instead of blue. Daddy? Tails was a dad? This thought made Sonic take a step back as he looked at his friend in a whole new different light.

"Yes Ben, Sky just stopped by for a visit, although she should really go home." Tails explained emphasising the last part towards Sky who just rolled her eyes while still holding the picture behind her back.

Ben smiled up at Sky and grabbed hold of her hand. The boy was so tiny and barely looked over a year old.

"Come on then, Sky." He said. "I need to show you my sticker collection."

"Ummm ok." Sky said as she let the young fox pull her out the door with the picture still hidden in her hands.

Sonic shook his head trying to clear it. "Wow Tails, you're a dad?"

Tails smiled and nodded as he turned back to the photos and Sonic looked with him. Tails reached down and picked up the largest photo on the shelf that had a beautiful gold frame around it. Sonic studied it closely and gasped at what he saw. Tails in a tuxedo with another fox wrapped in his arms wearing a beautiful white wedding dress. They were staring at each other with such adoration and didn't seem to realise they were having their photo taken. Sonic spotted himself next to Tails giving his trademark thumbs up at the camera with a huge cheeky smile on his face. His future self hadn't seemed to have aged a bit except he looked slightly taller and his eyes held more experience. To the side of the girl, the future Cream and Amy stood smiling at the camera, both wearing beautiful yellow dresses. Cream was now a lot taller and looked more mature. Amy was also a little taller and her quills were longer too, now touching her shoulders.

"Mine and Kiko's wedding two years ago." Tails said sadly. "Ben was born a year later."

"She's very pretty." Sonic remarked.

Tails nodded. "Yeah, she was."

Sonic looked at Tails and studied his friend's depressed expression. "Was? I don't understand."

"We were all so happy, but the day the shadow demons were set free, the three of us were out on a walk together as a family. Then Eggman's robots came out of nowhere, fighting off the shadow demons and trying to pull them back into the underworld. One of the giant robots short circuited as the shadow demon corroded the metal and it began falling towards us. I didn't notice and before I knew it Kiko had pushed Ben and I out of the way, but she couldn't get away in time. The robot landed on top of her and crushed her instantly. It all happened so fast." Tails explained as tears formed in his eyes. "If I was just paying more attention, she might not have had to die. She died trying to save me when I should've been the one protecting her."

Sonic could feel himself becoming physically sick. This is what Tails has to endure in the future? The loss of his wife and becoming a single dad to a child who would never know his mother. Why did this have to happen?

"Tails, I don't know what to say." Sonic answered as gently as he could.

"You were the best man at my wedding." Tails chuckled softly as he traced his fingers over the photo.

Sonic didn't say anything as he stared at the photo.

"Ben is all I have left of her now and I'm going to make sure I protect him and not fail him like I failed her." Tails said in a determined voice.

"You didn't fail her." Sonic said looking at back at him. "I'm sure she wouldn't want you to blame yourself for what happened and you should honour her sacrifice and bravery and lead a good life for her."

Tails sighed as he processed Sonic's words. "You said the exact same thing to me at her funeral."

"I guess I don't change much then." Sonic chuckled.

"I wouldn't say that." Tails mumbled.

"Why are you all being so secretive?" Sonic demanded as he collapsed onto the sofa. "I know you and Sky are hiding something from me. Something happens to me in the future and no one seems to want to tell me."

"It's up to your future self whether or not you find out." Tails sighed. "A lot happens between now and when you've come from. We all changed and it would take a long time to explain it all to you."

"I'm sure I can keep up." Sonic urged, resting his arms on his legs and leaning forward in anticipation.

Tails shook his head. "It's nothing to do with me."

Sonic groaned and threw himself back again. "I hate secrets."

They both looked up as Sky walked back into the room.

"He fell asleep so I put him to bed." She stated as she raised an eyebrow at Sonic who was glaring at the wall, but didn't question him. "So you really have no idea where Sonic could be?"

Tails shook his head.

"But do you at least have any information on the shadow creatures? They seem to fear the chaos emeralds." Sky explained.

This seemed to shock Tails. "Really? I can't image why and I don't have any new information on the creatures or how we can defeat them. Rouge however, did manage to find a book on them, but the line cut out before she could tell me what was in it. I just hope she's ok."

Sky sighed. "If they're so scared of the chaos emeralds then maybe it's high time we looked for the other ones."

"Well I know Sonic has one and as for the other ones, I don't know. They all scattered again after Eggman used them to start all this mess."

"Maybe he still has one." Sonic mused wondering what the future Dr Eggman looked like and Sonic sniggered at the thought.

"Perhaps. Maybe Knuckles and Rouge could help. They have a knack for finding them." Tails offered.

Sky nodded and Sonic quickly stood up.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" He yelled in excitement. He couldn't wait to see how Knucklehead was doing after all those years.

"Right." Sky said and walked out of the door.

Sonic was about to follow before he stopped and turned around to look back at Tails.

"What was really on that photo?" He asked with his eyebrow raised suspiciously.

Tails smirked at him. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Now you better get going and good luck."

Sonic sighed knowing he wouldn't get a proper answer out of him and followed Sky out the door.

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	5. The Market Battle

**Thanks for the reviews and I own nothing.**

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**V: The Market Battle**

"So where will good old Knucklehead be?" Sonic asked as they waked away from the village.

"Probably in the city somewhere." Sky answered.

This made no sense to Sonic. Knuckles hated the city because that meant being around loads of people. The socially awkward echidna was usually guarding the shrine of the master emerald so why would he be in the city?

"Why would he be there? Surely he'd be with the master emerald." Sonic asked.

Sky sighed. "Normally yes. But he never managed to recover it after Eggman stole it and well…it's hard to explain what happened next and its better if I just show you, but I warn you not to tease him."

This made Sonic think about how dangerous this was if Knuckles wasn't able to get the master emerald back. He looked at how small and innocent Sky looked and how easily she could get hurt. She didn't seem to have any special powers other than appearing to be a sneaky little thing, but that wouldn't help her at all in battle. Maybe Tails was right about her going home to her mother.

"Listen Sky." He said carefully. "Maybe I should take you to your mother."

"What? Why?" Sky demanded, outraged.

"This seems like it's going to get really dangerous and I wouldn't want you to get hurt. You have a family Sky, I'm just trying to think of them." He tried to explain.

Sky huffed. "What happened to 'life is no fun without a bit of danger'?"

Sonic sighed. "Fine, whatever, but if things get too ugly, then I'll be taking you home."

Sky didn't say anything as she ran quietly alongside Sonic, never seeming to get tired which confused Sonic a little. Did she have a really good stamina or something?

"I still can't believe Tails is a father." Sonic thought aloud and Sky rolled her eyes.

"There's a lot in this future that you won't believe." She laughed.

"I'm never having kids." He said after a few seconds silence.

"What?" Sky gasped. "Why?"

Sonic chuckled. "Well all they do is tie you down. Tails might be able to handle that, but I wouldn't. Marriage and families? Yuck. I prefer my freedom. I love running off whenever I please, going wherever the wind takes me and a family would take that away."

Sky looked a little disgruntled at what Sonic had said and he laughed at her expression.

"I know what you're thinking and a lot of people can't understand how I can just take off and not come back for weeks on end. I've just always been like that." He explained. "Looks like that hasn't change considering the fact I seem to have disappeared now."

"So you don't like anyone back in your time then?" Sky asked with a cheeky grin on her face.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked suspicious of where she was going with this.

"That Amy girl seems to have her eyes on you." She giggled and Sonic nearly tripped over his own feet.

"Amy is just a friend and that's all she'll ever be." Sonic nearly snapped at her. "I'm sick of everyone thinking she's my girlfriend and I'm sick of her chasing me around all the time. The girl can't take no for an answer."

"Alright chill." Sky said. "No need to get all defensive and maybe if you gave her a chance, you might find there's more to her than you originally thought."

"Why are you trying to set me up with her? Do you do this to me in the future? Does Amy put you up to it?" Sonic demanded. Why couldn't people respect that he didn't see Amy in that way?

Sky looked at Sonic with that weird expression again before smirking and shaking her head.

Westopolis was soon in sight again and they could soon hear all the busy traffic that was queuing up to enter the city. They ran to the city centre where Sky predicted Knuckles would be. A few people gave Sonic weird stares, but they ignored them as the wondered around.

Something soon caught Sonic's eye though as he looked at one of the tall buildings. A piece of paper, half hanging off as the wind blew it about. Sonic made his way over to it and gasped once he got a closer inspection. An image of his face was in the middle with big bold letters above his head: 'wanted'. Sonic turned around and looked at all the buildings and saw all his friends' faces on wanted posters and Sky finally caught onto what he was looking at.

"Creepy isn't it?" She said walking over to stand next to him. "The shadow demons need us for something, but we can't figure out what. Don't worry though, no one will turn us in. I hope."

Sonic was brought out of his thoughts by a sudden warm feeling. He pulled out the chaos emerald Sky had given him to see it pulsating as it reacted to something.

"A chaos emerald is nearby!" Sky said excitedly.

"Let's go." Sonic said as he held the emerald up to track the other emerald down.

They followed the signal and stopped outside a very large supermarket.

"This has to be the most unusual place I have ever found a chaos emerald. I guess Knuckles will have to wait." Sonic laughed as they both entered the building. Various Mobians and humans were shopping around and there didn't seem to be any sign of a chaos emerald anywhere.

"How're we going to find an emerald in this place?" Sky asked as she twirled around, looking in every direction. There were many aisles filled with every possible thing you could buy.

"This is going to be interesting." Sonic said as he continued to follow the emerald's signal although it was difficult as they had to weave around shelves and people.

"It should be around here somewhere." Sonic said as they both looked around at the tall shelves with many different clothes hanging from them.

"Why would a chaos emerald need to go shopping?" Sky mumbled to herself as she started parting all the clothes, looking for any sign of a glowing gem stone.

"We better hurry." Sonic said as he helped look. "Look out for the shadow demons."

"Look out, shadow demons!" Sky yelled as soon as Sonic had finished speaking.

Sonic snapped his head around to see two shadow demons emerging slowly out of the floor.

"Great, that's all we need." Sky growled as she dived into a rack of clothes, disappearing from sight.

Sonic turned back around and glared at the shadow demons as they stared back with their blank white eyes.

"Not so tough are you?" Sonic teased. "Bet you can't catch me."

He took off running towards the other end of the store, items blew off shelves and people screamed as a sudden gust of wind blew past them. Everyone starting panicking as soon as they saw the shadow demons and ran out of the store screaming, abandoning shopping carts and dropping items where they were standing.

Sonic was about to run past an aisle full of frozen food when a shadow demon appeared out of the floor again, halting him in his tracks. Sonic skidded to halt and was about to turn back around when he saw the other shadow demon continuing to pursue him.

"Oh no, what will I do now?" Sonic said pretending to be scared before laughing and pulling out the chaos emerald. He held it in front of him as the shadow creatures continued to stalk slowly towards him with their arms out ready to capture him.

"Any time you want to chip in chaos emerald." Sonic glared at the jewel as it didn't seem to be having any effect on the creatures. "Come on." Sonic begged as the demons got closer and closer.

Sonic huffed and finally decided to jump into the air and run back towards where he last saw Sky. Why didn't the chaos emerald trick work for him? It worked for Sky and he doubted she had much experience when it came to harnessing their power. Sonic decided to worry about it later and focus on protecting Sky from those creatures and finding the other emerald.

He was once again stopped in his tracks by a shadow demon appearing out of the ground. Sonic held the emerald out in warning, but the creatures ignored it as they continued to stalk towards him.

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to will the emerald to work its magic and repel the evil creature, but once again nothing happened.

"Out of ideas Sonic the Hedgehog." A raspy voice seemed to echo throughout the building.

The shadow creature reached out to swipe at Sonic, but the voice commanded it to stop and Sonic looked around in confusion, trying to determine where the voice was coming from.

"Fool! Don't kill him! If you destroy him then we'll have no guest of honour at our grand finale. Now hand over the girl."

"You mean me?" Sky's voice called from the top of one of the shelves. She stood there looking around for the source of the voice with the purple chaos emerald clasped tightly in her hands.

"Ah Sky the Hedgehog, your father must be very proud of all your hard work of the past few days." The deep voice laughed.

Sky didn't say anything as she glared at the ceiling.

"But your efforts are useless and you're needed down in the underworld for something very special. Now be a good little girl and come quietly." The voice commanded sounding really bored.

"What do you need me for?" Sky asked sounding shocked.

"Oh you'll see, but I'm sure your daddy will be happy to see you." The voice laughed manically.

Sky gasped. "What have you done to my father?"

The shadow demons suddenly appeared behind her and grabbed hold of her arms.

"Sky watch out!" Sonic called out and ran over to her.

"Let me go!" Sky screamed and the chaos emerald began shining brightly again. The shadow creatures let out loud screeches as if they had been burned and soon melted into the ground.

"I don't know how you did that." Sonic said in shock as he helped the little hedgehog down.

Sky looked around wildly with wide eyes. "I don't know either. It just keeps happening."

Sonic looked around and gasped when he saw more shadow demons rising out of the ground.

"Do you think you could use it on them?" Sonic asked as he pointed towards them.

"I think running and hiding is the best option for me right now." Sky choked out when she saw how many shadow demons were behind them.

"Right." Sonic agreed as he quickly scooped Sky up and ran to the other side of the store, hiding behind one of the aisles.

"Now what?" He asked.

"I'm thinking." Sky insisted as she frowned in concentration. "Obviously I can't let that guy get hold of me because I doubt he needs me for planting flowers or doing the dishes."

Sonic peered around the corner to see the creatures stalking towards them, knowing exactly where they were. Sonic was about to point this out to Sky when the future versions of Amy and Cream suddenly teleported in front of the demons.

"Take this, you creeps!" Amy yelled as she swung her hammer around. Sonic was astonished to see that her hammer had a direct effect on the creatures and they screeched and melted in pain as Amy continued to hit them.

"Amy, they're gone, it's ok now." Cream tried to reassure Amy as she continued to hit the ground where the creatures had been. Amy was panting heavily as she finally let her hammer come to a rest and she seemed to be biting back sobs.

Sonic was about to come out and greet them before he felt Sky's hand wrap around his arm and pull him back. She placed her hand over his mouth to silence him and sat there, looking frozen with fear at the sound of Cream and Amy's voices.

"I was so sure she was here." He heard Amy say and Cream sighed.

"It looks like everyone left when the monsters started attacking. I don't think she's here Amy." Cream said sadly.

Amy whimpered, but Sonic then heard her growl as another shadow demon appeared out of the ground.

He heard Amy drop her hammer and grab hold of the creature. Again, Sonic sat there in shock wondering how Amy could make contact with the creatures and other people couldn't.

"Where's Sky?" Amy snarled at the monster who didn't say anything.

Sky held her breath and had a look of pure horror on her face. She kept a tight grip on Sonic's mouth as he looked at her with a confused and suspicious expression while he continued to listen carefully to Cream and Amy.

He heard her growl and hit the creature with her hammer and he guessed it must have disappeared.

"We'll find her Amy." Cream tried to reassure her friend and Cheese made a noise in agreement.

"I hope so." Amy growled and then Sonic heard Cream and Amy disappear.

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	6. Future Knuckles

**Thanks for the reviews and I own nothing.**

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**VI: Future Knuckles**

"I don't understand." Sonic said as he and Sky walked out of the store after Cream and Amy left. "How many people are after you again? What did you do?"

Sky sighed. "My mother probably sent them to look for me." She answered biting her lip and refusing to look at him.

"I really don't understand you kid." Sonic muttered as they made their way back into the centre of the city with the two chaos emeralds.

"Look, things are pretty complicated and the least of my worries is my mother looking for me." Sky sighed and marched on ahead slightly.

Sonic sighed and also picked up the pace to walk next to her again.

"Can you please just tell me exactly what is going on?" He asked. "You seem to be keeping a lot of information from me and maybe if you told me, I could help."

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, but trust me, the less you know, the better." She said, glaring straight ahead of her.

Sonic frowned. This girl was starting to really annoy him. What was the big secret he felt like he was missing out on?

"Sky, it sounds like something I have the right to know about." He insisted.

"You don't have the right to do anything!" Sky snapped turning around to glare at him. "You're a lot different from the person I thought you were and I brought you here to help, not to ask a million and one questions."

"Hey!" Sonic yelled which forced her to stop walking. "I could have decided not to help and I don't understand why you're being so cagey all of a sudden, but I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just trying to help and I think I deserve answers considering you were the one who dragged me here."

Sky didn't say anything as she refused to look at him.

"I don't know whether I should be happy or offended that you haven't figured it out." She mumbled and Sonic cocked his head her.

"What do you mean?" He asked quietly and carefully.

Sky thought for a few seconds. "Nothing."

Sonic groaned. "See, there you go again with the secrets. What's so bad that you can't tell me?"

"There's lots of stuff that I'm not telling you." She said folding her arms across her chest.

"I give up!" Sonic moaned, exasperated as he slapped his hand against his face.

Sky sighed before finally looking up to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so closed off, but trust me when I say it's for the best." She answered more calmly.

"I don't understand." Sonic said with a sigh.

"Let's just forget about it for now and focus on finding Knuckles." Sky said and began walking down an alley way.

Sonic huffed, but decided not to argue with her anymore and followed her. The girl almost reminded him of himself when he was younger. It was almost creepy.

They both walked out into a more dirty area of the city. Buildings were darker and many of them had neon signs on them, most of them with various letters missing or they kept cutting off.

"Err, why are we here?" Sonic asked as he walked up next to Sky who didn't seem at all afraid of the area.

Sonic and Sky both stopped when they saw a red echidna being tossed out of one of the bars.

"What kind of service do you call this?" The future knuckles slurred as he struggled to pick himself up off the ground. "I should smash your face in."

"Knuckles?" Sonic gasped out before bursting out laughing at the sight of the drunk and scruffy looking guardian. His red fur was sticking up in random directions and he looked like he hadn't washed in ages. His purple eyes were dull and intoxicated as they looked up to see Sonic and Sky a few feet away.

Sky elbowed Sonic in an attempt to get him shut up.

"Hey Knuckles." Sky said slowly, beginning to approach him. "Been kicked out again?"

"Oh it's you." Knuckles hiccupped. "Sky, my favourite little hedgehog unlike a certain father of yours who never makes time to see his old friend anymore." He folded his arms across his chest and groaned like a child.

Sky cleared her throat awkwardly and her eyes darted to Sonic and back again.

Knuckles looked up and noticed Sonic. "Wow, Sonic, you look younger every time I see you. Finally come to see me eh? After you left me to waste away." He snapped and Sonic stepped back, holding his hands up defensively.

"It wasn't Sonic's fault, Knuckles." Sky tried to reason with him.

"Oh no, Mr Perfect is never to blame is he? I don't know how you cope with him Sky; waste of space that he is."

"Hey!" Sonic yelled, glaring at the pathetic mess his hot headed friend had become. "What happened to the once strong and fearless guardian of the master emerald?"

Sky cringed awkwardly.

"Like you don't know." Knuckles growled finally managing to stand up and then burped loudly.

"Actually he doesn't." Sky interjected. "This is Sonic from the past, I sort of ran away from home and picked him up along the way."

Knuckles began laughing and Sky slapped her hand against her forehead.

"You what? Ran away from home?" Knuckles gasped out between fits of laughter. "And travelled through time? That's amazing! Oh I'd love to see your dad's face when he finds out what his precious eldest daughter has been getting up to. I think he might die of a heart attack." He continued laughing and Sky hid her face in her hands.

"Why does everyone insist on reminding me of how my father is going to react?" Sky cringed.

"I'm sure your dad isn't all bad." Sonic said trying to cheer Sky up, but this just seemed to make Knuckles laugh even harder. "What did I say?" Sonic asked and Sky glared at the drunk echidna.

"You know." Knuckles gasped out once he had finished laughing and stumbled over to Sonic, throwing his arm around Sonic's neck. He smelt of alcohol and it made Sonic want to gag. "You were alright buddy, until you changed." He added sinisterly.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked feeling slightly frightened by what Knuckles had just said. What does he mean by change?

Sky groaned and tried to pull Knuckles away from Sonic, but Knuckles continued to cling onto him.

"But I was the great guardian of the master emerald. The only one left in my clan, the duty was heavy, but I accepted it." Knuckles spoke dramatically while Sky sighed and let go of him. "Everything was going fine until Sonic went and stole it."

"He had no choice Knuckles!" Sky snapped.

"Quit defending him!" Knuckles yelled back. "He knew the risk, but he was as selfish as always and cared more about having his own little fun, than the safety of everyone else."

Sonic gasped as these words sunk in. Why did his future self steal the master emerald? What would he need with that silly rock?

"But of course he knew very well that Eggman would double cross him and when Jade was born, the crazy doctor went back on his word as always. Sonic of all people should know about that, but no. That's when all hell broke loose. This whole mess is Sonic's fault." Knuckles spat, finally letting Sonic go.

"My my my, you haven't been scarring big blue have you Knuckie?" A familiar seductive voice called down.

Everyone looked up to see the future version of Rouge the bat land gracefully to the ground. She placed her hands on her hips and winked at Knuckles.

"Wow, aren't you a sight for sore eyes." She snorted as she looked him up and down. "I didn't know you'd take our break up that hard."

Knuckle's eyes widened. "We only had one date!" He yelled.

Rouge ignored him and winked at Sky before looking at Sonic.

"Don't worry big blue. Knuckles has just had his knickers in a twist for the past year over the whole master emerald incident which no one blames you for." She reassured him, but Sonic still wasn't convinced. There was more to the story, he could tell.

"Have you seen my dad anywhere on your travels?" Sky asked Rouge hopefully.

"Sorry honey, I haven't, but I've been keeping an eye out for him." She replied. "Now a certain little fox told me, you're interested in the chaos emeralds."

Sky and Sonic nodded their heads

"Good because I've got two right here and I don't feel like sharing them with anyone else." She said holding out the pink and yellow chaos emeralds.

"How did you…?" Sky gasped.

"Being an amazing treasure hunter like me." Rouge said and Knuckles gagged but she ignored him. "Precious babies like these practically call out to me. I found them in the woods just lying there so I helped myself."

"Really? They were just lying there?" Sonic asked feeling unsure. "Something doesn't seem right about that."

Rouge shrugged. "Well nothing happened when I took them so I just assumed I got lucky."

"Who cares?" Sky shrugged as she inspected the emeralds in Rouge's hand. "Now we only have two emeralds left to get."

"I know that one is with Sonic and the other is with Dr Eggman." Rouge said as she put them away.

"Let's go then." Knuckles said wobbling over to them again. "I have an overdue date with Eggman that I'll never let him forget."

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	7. Book of the Underworld

**Thanks for the reviews and favourites etc. I own nothing!**

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**VII: Book of the Underworld**

"Tails mentioned that you'd found some answers on the shadow demons." Sky mentioned to Rouge as they trailed behind Sonic and Knuckles.

Rouge suddenly looked a little uncomfortable which was really out of character for her and Sonic and Knuckles both looked back a little concerned.

"Maybe we should just stop here for a bit." Rouge said as they entered a small clearing with loads of rocks sticking out of the ground. "My heels are killing me."

Knuckles grunted. "Well you shouldn't wear silly girly things like that when we're on a mission."

Rouge smiled at him seductively. "You're just jealous that you don't have amazing legs to show off Knuckie. If a girl's got a figure, she shouldn't keep it hidden and no doubt you're dying for a peak." Rouge winked.

Knuckles stopped in his tracks and began blushing furiously. "You stupid bat, they're kids present."

Sky sighed. "I still have more maturity than you two." She mumbled and Sonic cleared his throat as the bat and the echidna were about to have one of their huge rows.

"About the book Rouge." Sonic reminded her and with one last wink at Knuckles, she pulled out a very small and old looking book.

"Hey, that's the book of the underworld." Sky commented as she peered over Rouge's shoulder and get a better look. She had an expression of awe on her face and everyone looked at her confused.

"You know what this is?" Sonic asked astonished.

Sky nodded. "My mother is really into this kind of stuff."

"What? Death?" Sonic asked feeling a little worried for her mother's sanity.

Sky laughed. "No. Spiritual stuff and all that; charms and spells and legends."

Sonic shook his head. Sounded like Amy and Sky's mom would get along great. He was never really a believer in that kind of thing. Just silly stories and gibberish that was exaggerated over time. He'd seen his fair share of weird things, but things like fate and legends sent him to sleep.

"So your mother knows what these things are?" Sonic asked. "So we could've gone to her all along."

Sky shook her head frantically and Knuckles laughed before falling over, still under the effects of alcohol.

"I doubt that she does, she would've told us otherwise." Sky answered before everyone's attention went back to the book.

"Anyway," Rouge began, "This is a pretty sinister book if ever I saw one."

"I'm surprised you could even strain your brain to read." Knuckles muttered, but everyone ignored him.

"So we all know that Eggman used the master emerald to crack a weak point in the dimensions between the living and the dead, but the whole process is incomplete. Sure the shadow demons and spirits can leak out, but the pull from their dimension is too strong at the moment because the gap they came from is so small, it focuses the force." She explained as she pointed to various pieces of text and images in the book.

"But let me guess, there is a way to make the gap bigger." Sonic guessed.

"Yes and that's what's worrying me." Rouge answered. "The underworld dimension is filled with the spirits of the dead, other demons and spirits and shadow demons. The rest of them don't really do much, but it's the shadow demons you have to watch out for. They're responsible for torturing the evil. The king of the underworld created them out of the destructive force of the chaos emeralds to punish those who have done bad things. These demons torture them for eternity."

She pointed to the gruesome drawings of shadow demons pushing people into acid, cutting them in half and many other gory things that made even Sonic want to vomit.

"They can suck the life out of living creatures and are incredibly powerful and if the rift is opened even more, they will be able to travel to Mobius at full strength and they'll torture every living creature on the planet, only ever seeing the bad in people."

"Can't the king of the underworld do something?" Sky demanded as she tried to get a better look at the writing.

Rouge sighed. "He could but he won't. His curse was to watch over the dead for all eternity and he won't miss the opportunity to get revenge on his tribe for banishing him there."

"So how exactly do they go about getting out of there?" Knuckles asked.

Rouge looked at Sky worriedly before sighing and turned the page. The most horrific looking drawing Sonic had ever seen dominated the left side of the page and Sky turned away whimpering slightly. Even Knuckles turned slightly green.

"They have a sacrifice the soul of a child before unleashing a great darkness, then the rift will rip open and they'll all be free." Rouge gasped out.

"That's why they're after me." Sky whispered and Rouge nodded her head.

Knuckles paused for a second before looking really worried. "When you said unleash a great darkness…you don't mean?"

Rouge nodded.

"So by using Sky, they kill two birds with one stone." Knuckles said drifting over towards where Sky was who was staring blankly at the floor.

"My hypothesis exactly."

"Hold on." Sonic interrupted. "So you're saying they want to kill Sky I get that, but what's this darkness that you're all talking about?"

Rouge looked at Sky. "It hasn't happened to him yet?"

Sky shook her head and Rouge sighed.

"I'm just guessing, but Sky's father isn't the most mentally stable. Especially when all the chaos emeralds are around and he's angry enough. Killing Sky would cause him to…change." She explained carefully.

"Change into what? Some psychotic monster?" Sonic gasped.

"That's one way of putting it." Knuckles said with no emotion as he continued looking at the pictures in the book.

Sky sighed and looked like she was fighting back tears. "Like the king of the underworld, my father is also cursed along with my mother."

Rouge and Knuckles both cringed as if remembering a painful memory.

Sonic started to feel really uncomfortable and outraged at everything he was hearing.

"This is insane!" He bellowed making everyone there jump. "This future, how can it all be real? All these bad things that happen? What happened to all the happy times we all spent together as friends huh? All those times we went against Eggman for fun. Now everyone is so serious and scarred from horrible things that have yet to happen to you in my time. How can I go back and look them all in the eye knowing what's coming? This is sick!"

"What's with all the shouting?" A dark voice called before a black and red hedgehog appeared out of the shadows of the trees as the sun began to set over the canopy.

"Shadow?" Sonic said as he took in his rival who hadn't changed a single bit.

"Faker." Shadow acknowledged. "You're looking a lot younger, did a certain small hedgehog use my chaos emerald for the exact opposite reasons I gave it her for?"

Sky shifted around awkwardly refusing to look at him.

"My my my, this is certainly a very interesting situation." Shadow said as he grinned wickedly at Sonic who crouched into a defensive position. "I'm not going to fight you blue hedgehog."

Sonic relaxed, but only slightly. He didn't trust Shadow who was always ruthless when he wanted something and the only one in his circle of allies who had a killer instinct although it seems that all changes in the future. Sonic shuddered at the thought. He wanted to change all this. He was going to change it. That was the beauty of the future right? He would make sure none of this ever happens?

"Then why exactly did you give me the emerald?" Sky asked. "It wasn't working much for you when you were using it."

Shadow smirked down at her. His red eyes shining dangerously. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Sky thought for a second. "You mean when it goes all weird when I hold it against those demons."

"Chaos emeralds are highly sensitive to positive and negative energy and you're filled with the positive stuff. Because you're so young and pure, the emerald can act as an amulet to protect you from the demons because they only harm the bad. That's why it doesn't work for us; we're older and have all done our fair share of horrible deeds." He explained with an almost psychotic sparkle in his eye.

Sonic didn't think it was possible, but Shadow seemed to have gotten even crazier.

"Of course," Shadow continued, "I never expected you to travel through time. I was going to come find you again and drag you back kicking and screaming to your family. I promised your father I'd look out for you in case you did something as stupid as you normally, but it seems he's doing so without realising."

"I don't do stupid things." Sky said in shock and Knuckles cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Oh really?" Shadow asked with his eyebrow raised. "I caught you sneaking into that G.U.N meeting."

"That was one time and…hey how did you know I was there?" She asked, amazed.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "I am the ultimate life form."

"Spare us." Sonic groaned. "I don't know about you, but I need a rest."

"We'll visit Eggman at dawn then." Knuckles said yawning and sitting down on a rock and began reading the book of the underworld again. Rouge also sat down and pulled out a compact mirror and began doing her make up while Shadow stood still at the edge of the clearing, concentrating on his surroundings.

Sky and Sonic both sat down next to each other on the grass and stared out at the sunset before Sonic began to question the mysterious blue hedgehog.

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**Feel free to leave your opinion.**


	8. Home Truths

**I own nothing.**

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**VIII: Home Truths**

"What else goes on in the future that I don't already know about?" Sonic asked as he watched the small hedgehog pick at the grass. "Rouge hasn't changed much, Tails is a father, Shadow has become even more psychotic and Knuckles is a drunk."

Knuckles' head snapped up to glare at Sonic, but he just waved back which made the red echidna snarl at him before walking over.

"Well you haven't changed much in the future." Knuckles smirked.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "One moment you're saying I have changed and the next minute I haven't. Make up your mind Knuckles."

"In a sense you haven't." Knuckles answered ignoring Sonic's sarcasm. "You're still the same thrill seeking, arrogant, pesky, annoying, stupid and ignorant hedgehog as ever."

"Love you too Knuckles." Sonic grinned.

Sky rolled her eyes. "You two fighting doesn't change much either. Hey Knuckles, remember that time on the camping trip when you pushed Sonic into a lake?" She threw her head back and laughed and Knuckles joined in.

Sonic pulled a sour face. His fear of water was no secret and he hated it and it looked like his friends were still using it against him in the future.

"So how do we meet?" Sonic asked Sky trying to end the conversation about this apparent camping trip he was going to have.

Sky stopped laughing and went back to picking at the grass which she seemed to be finding more interesting than ever.

"I've always known you." She answered and Knuckles looked like he was about to say something sarcastic before Sky smacked him on the back of the head, a gesture Sonic always used when Knuckles had been tricked by Eggman. Looks like his attitude rubbed off on his friends' kids. He was sure they'd love him for that one.

Sonic was hungry to know more about the future. "What does everyone do now, we saw Cream and Amy earlier. What've they been up to?"

"Cream helps out at a bakery while Amy is a temple priestess." Sky answered. The one about Amy made him stop short and chuckle.

"A what?"

Knuckles and Sky both shared a weird look.

"Don't ask." Knuckles said as he sat down next to Sky.

"Yeah, I live at her temple sometimes." Sky said with a longing tone in her voice.

"You must miss your family." Sonic noted as Sky began to look sad thinking about her apparent second home.

She nodded reluctantly. "I've never been away from them this long before. I know they're worried about me, but this is something I have to do."

Sonic nodded in understanding. He couldn't begin to imagine what the kid was feeling. It seemed like she'd really been through a lot and now that she found out she was in serious danger, it must really be taking its toll on her.

Sonic, Knuckles, Rouge and Sky all talked and laughed together for the rest of the evening, almost forgetting the danger they were all in. Sonic felt great relaxing with his future friends, but still kept his eye on Shadow who was still standing still on the edge of the field. It looked like Shadow was joining in on the Eggman hunt, although Sonic admitted it would be useful having him around. The black hedgehog had a knack for getting what he wanted and was extremely ruthless. A useful asset to have on the team.

The sun had set and Sonic looked over to see Sky curled up and completely passed out on the grass and couldn't help but smile at the sight of her.

"Good kid isn't she?" Knuckles said, breaking the silence as Rouge sat a few feet away, filing her nails.

Sonic looked away from her and nodded in agreement.

"Looks like I'm lucky to be meeting such good friends in the future." Sonic commented as he stared up at the moon.

"You are a lucky guy Sonic." Knuckles admitted as he leaned back to relax.

Sonic sighed. "Am I though? It seems like I'm destined to screw everything up."

Knuckles snorted. "Don't you always?"

Sonic didn't say anything. However, everyone jumped, apart from Shadow and Sky, when a loud shriek was heard from the forest that sounded like someone was being murdered.

"Relax." Shadow commanded, his voice full of authority as usual. "That Shadow Demon is over ten miles away." He added before walking over and sitting down with them.

"They're so creepy." Rouge shuddered as she pushed the book of the underworld away from her.

"They're meant to be." Knuckles said as he picked up the book. "They were designed to look disfigured and demonic because its sparks people's fear of the paranormal and the unknown. It's all here in the book."

Rouge looked impressed and both Sonic and Shadow glared into the trees.

"It's so quiet." Sonic mumbled as he strained to hear the sounds of the forest and insects, but nothing happened.

"They're completely sucking the life out of everything." Rouge gasped in horror. "Soon there won't be anything else alive left if this continues."

"That's why we move in the morning." Shadow said as he fiddled with his chaos emerald and practiced shooting out sparks at a few rocks across the field.

.

Sonic's eyes snapped opened and sat up taking in his surroundings. Then he remembered the events of the previous day and immediately felt wide awake. Knuckles was still asleep, but everyone else was awake and seemed to be planning something.

"His base is located deep within the volcano where the energy makes it difficult to track him." Shadow explained as he pointed something out on a map.

"I don't think the doctor will be very welcoming." Sky mumbled as Shadow marked on where the defences were.

"You let me worry about that." Shadow said. "I'll create a diversion while you guys look for the chaos emerald. It will no doubt be in the core of the base where it will be powering Eggman's robots."

"Come to mama." Rouge said rubbing her hands together. Knuckles sat up, now awake and rolled his eyes at the Kleptomaniac bat.

"We can use the energy from the chaos emeralds to seal the hole then?" Knuckles said and Shadow nodded his head.

"Sounds like a piece of cake." Sonic said smirking at the map.

Shadow huffed and picked the map back up. "Let's move."

Finding Eggman's base was easy once you knew what to look for. Plus, the robots that looked like they were preparing for battle gave the whole thing away. Sonic rolled his eyes at how big Eggman had built the place. What would be the point since he always kept destroying them? The evil genius was so conceited.

"Ok, get ready to move." Shadow ordered before throwing a chaos spear to the other side of the courtyard where robots were marching forward. The egg pawns all froze and began running wildly as Shadow threw more at them. Shadow teleported as far away from the door as possible, letting the robots see him. The stupid creations soon caught sight of Shadow and they all began running towards him, shooting every weapon they had, but to no effect.

"I guess that's our cue." Sonic muttered as they all followed Rouge who said she had been here before and remembered most of the way around.

"Dealing with Eggman sure has its perks." She chuckled as she flew ahead of them and stopped outside the sealed door.

"How about the aggressive approach?" Knuckles laughed as he showed off his fists, preparing to break down the door.

Rouge and Sonic both had to grab hold of his arms to prevent him from doing such a stupid move.

"You really don't understand the whole concept of sneaking in do you?" Sky snapped sarcastically as Knuckles huffed in annoyance.

"Well unless you have a better way of getting in." He remarked and Rouge pointed towards the top of the huge metal door.

"How about that conveniently placed air vent?" She asked as she flew up to open it.

She then flew back down and picked Sky up and carried her up, then Sonic followed by Knuckles.

"Have you been comfort eating during our little breakup sweetheart?" Rouge purred as she pretended to struggle to carry Knuckles up.

Sonic and Sky both looked at each other before gagging. They both parted as they let Rouge crawl past them and they began following her through the tightly packed air vent.

"I'm getting really claustrophobic in here, I'm going to want to do twenty laps around the world when this is over." Sky mumbled in a shaky voice.

"Never had you down as being one to be scared of tight spaces. You're about to be a sacrifice and you're worried about a stupid air vent?" Knuckles said.

"There's nothing wrong with wide open spaces to run around in." Sky defended and Sonic looked at her in shock.

"It's like we're twins." Sonic laughed and Sky let out a nervous laugh in response.

"Sssh you guys." Rouge hissed. "Egghead might hear us."

"You're the one who's talking." Knuckles hissed back.

"Yeah, to tell you gossiping old ladies to shut up." Rouge snapped a little louder.

"I'm not an old lady!" Knuckles snapped back even louder.

"Well stop acting like one." Rouge shouted.

"I'M NOT!"

Sonic and Sky exchanged a fed up glance.

"I thought we were sneaking in?" Sonic interrupted them, halting their stupid argument.

"Define 'we'," Knuckles snorted. "Bat girl is only in this for herself."

Rouge gasped. "How dare you? I'm trying to help out and you still can't be nice to me."

Sky groaned. "Will you two just kiss already so we can get on with this?"

Sonic laughed at the expressions on their faces and Rouge continued on without a word. Knuckles was mumbling to himself the whole way until they came across another entrance to the vent.

"We're better off following the corridors now." Rouge said. "I know my way from here." She kicked the grate out of the way and jumped out, followed by the others.

The corridor was completely made of metal that looked like it could with stand a nuclear strike, let alone some molten rock. Sonic whistled lowly at how much Eggman had really outdone himself this time. Energy seemed to be flowing across the walls which he guessed was energy from the chaos emerald.

Sonic walked over to one of the walls and knocked gently on it. Sky came up behind him to see what he was doing and looked at him curiously.

"I must admit, I'm going to have a hard time blowing this place up." He admitted, looking at their reflections in the strong metal walls.

Sky smirked and Sonic gasped as he took in her reflection next to his. Her smirk was exactly like his and her eyes held that same cheeky sparkle. He stared at her reflection with wide eyes and kept comparing it to his own. How had he not noticed it before? She was almost the spitting image of him despite the odd feature here and there. Sonic started getting creeped out. Was she that much of a fan of him that she altered her appearance to look like him?

Sky seemed to notice his reaction and her smile dropped into a look of concern.

"Are you ok? You look a little ill?" She asked

"I'm fine." He managed to squeak out before clearing his throat. Who the hell was this girl? Why was she trying to be like him so much?

"What's taking you guys so long?" Knuckles demanded half way down the corridor.

"Coming." Sky said as she ran after them.

Sonic followed without a word and continued to keep his eye on Sky. There was something funny about that girl and when they got out of here, he was determined to find out what it was. Maybe then he'd finally know the inside joke he was missing out on.

"Bingo." Rouge said as they hid behind a huge metal doorframe where the chaos emerald was being kept.

"Looks like we have no choice but to use the aggressive approach now." Knuckles said as he cracked his fingers while eyeing the four Eggman robots guarding the container where the chaos emerald obviously was.

Sonic shrugged. "Fine by me." He said before spin dashing and zooming into the room, taking the robots completely by surprise.

Knuckles laughed and joined in followed by Rouge and Sky.

Sonic had to admit that he was impressed with Sky's fighting skills. The kid seemed to know what she was doing as she took on the large robot single handed, but he soon gasped as the robot Rouge was fighting aimed its gun towards her.

Sonic didn't even have time to shout out before it shot at her and didn't even have time to blink as Sky disappeared in a blue blur only to reappear at the other side of the room giving a cheeky grin – his cheeky grin. Now she was incredibly fast too? He guessed that explained the incidents earlier when she just seemed to disappear. Sonic stood there with his mouth agape, the robot he had just trashed completely forgotten about. The only other person who ever rivalled Sonic's speed was Shadow. Sonic was starting to get a headache.

The last robot hit the ground with an almighty crash and Rouge made her way over to the small container.

"Alright my precious gem," Rouge gasped as she prepared to life the lid. "Come to mama."

She lifted the lid and inhaled sharply when she saw nothing there. Sonic and the other's also gasped and began to look around wildly for any sign of the emerald.

"Seriously!?" Knuckles blurted out as he punched one of the destroyed robots in frustration.

"Ho ho ho!" A mad laughter sounded over the loud speakers and they all covered their ears. "Thought you could steal my precious chaos emerald did you? Well the doctor was one step ahead of you." Eggman laughed again.

They all cried out as large bulky robots appeared out of the secret passage ways in the walls and grabbed hold of the four intruders before they could even react. They all struggled to break free, but even Knuckles was having trouble making a dent in the strong alloyed metal.

They heard Eggman's mad cackle again before he shouted menacingly. "Bring them to me."

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**Feel free to leave your opinion.**


	9. Caught Out

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

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**IX: Caught Out**

Sonic shielded his eyes as they were all brought into a bright room. The master emerald was in the centre, shining brightly and there were various computers around the room, all hooked up to the emerald. Sonic looked around and saw Eggman hunched over a desk working away furiously and as soon as the metal doors closed behind them, he turned around to face them.

"What ho? Look who's decided to join us." Eggman chuckled. Eggman seemed to have aged a lot over the years. His moustache was longer and grey and his wrinkled made his face look all shrivelled up. Even under his glasses you could see dark bruises under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in ages and he still looked as fat and gross as ever.

"Nice welcoming party you sent us." Sonic said sarcastically as he tapped his fingers against the metal claw that had him trapped.

"Weren't you just here?" Eggman asked Sonic as he scratched his head in confusion.

"Sonic was here?" Sky gasped and looked around.

Eggman then noticed Sky. "Ah yes, you must be Sky. I can certainly see the resemblance. Then again I could never quite catch you, even when you sneaked into my meetings."

Sky smirked. "Too fast for you eh doc?"

Eggman huffed. "Just as cocky." He mumbled.

"Surrender the master emerald and the chaos emerald Egghead!" Knuckles demanded as he punched furiously at the robot holding him captive. It was no use though.

"Weren't you ever taught the magic words?" Eggman said in a patronising voice. "Anyway the answer will always be no since I've had direct orders from the blue pin cushion to keep it here."

"What? Why?" Rouge asked looking shocked.

"He can be very persuasive when he wants to be." Eggman said looking sorry for himself as he rubbed his cheek where a bruise looked like it was beginning to form.

Sonic gasped. His future self seemed so violent. Even though he disliked Eggman, he would never purposefully harm him in a serious way. He had too much fun foiling his plans to do anything drastic.

"I hope you've had a good luck at your future Sonic because your life won't always be rosy forever." Eggman snapped.

"But why though?" Sonic demanded letting out all his frustration at how much of a bad turn everyone's lives seemed to have taken.

Everyone looked up as Shadow walked calmly into the room and stood there watching the scene and Sonic's reaction carefully.

Eggman looked back at Sonic and laughed psychotically. "That's the funny thing about life Sonic. You can't always be innocent forever. Sooner or later, reality comes to get you and you see the world for what it really is. A selfish and cruel place that always smacks you down when you reach too high. You think you have it all Sonic? You're what? Fifteen? Not long to wait now before you take off those rose tinted glasses…hey that could be a good pun."

Sky rolled her eyes as Sonic stayed in the robots grip looking miserable. His life really wasn't destined to take a turn wasn't it? He wanted to do everything within his power to change it. None of his friends will have to suffer. He guessed he should be thanking Sky for this adventure. Now he knew exactly where things were going to go wrong and he was going to prevent them.

He looked up with a new determination, but was briefly distracted by a dark shadow moving in the corner. It looked like…it couldn't be…?

"So you guys want my chaos emerald huh?" Eggman said diverting Sonic's attention away from what he now assumed was the trick of the light as he never saw it again.

"Hand my precious gem over please doctor." Rouge purred and Eggman smirked.

"Now her politeness I like." He said. "You could learn a thing or two from her Knuckles."

Knuckles huffed. "Yeah, like how to be a good for nothing jewel thief."

"Hey!" Rouge yelled.

"I see these two never learn to shut up." Sonic whispered to Sky who smirked that identical smirk again that made Sonic jump when he saw it.

"No comment." She said before they both watched as Eggman pulled the chaos emerald out.

"Well here you go." Eggman said as he threw it at them. "Happy now?"

Sonic blinked. "That's it. You're just handing it to us?"

Eggman glared at Sonic. "I'm helping out and you're complaining. Make up your mind you stupid hog."

Sonic held his hands up in surrender before Eggman motioned for his robots to let them all down.

"Now hand over the master emerald." Knuckles demanded taking a step towards Eggman, holding his fists out, ready for a fight.

Eggman pretended to think for a second.

"No can do." He replied. "Strict orders."

"DAMN YOU SONIC!" Knuckles yelled making the whole room shake.

"If you can't give it to Knuckles could you at least give it to me?" Rouge begged in an innocent voice, pouting her lip.

Eggman glared at them and shook his head.

"See yourselves out." He ordered before turning away and getting back to work.

"Why did you just hand us the emerald Eggman? What are you hiding?" Sonic demanded.

"I said see yourselves out." Eggman commanded in a more serious tone.

"Not until you give me the master emerald you crazy old man." Knuckles bellowed as he tried to run towards it. The robot that had previously held him captive blocked his way.

"If you can't see yourselves out, I'll throw you out. Robots ATTACK!" Eggman yelled and the robots all began charging towards them.

"Forget the master emerald for now." Sky shouted at Knuckles as she pulled him towards the door. It opened and they all ran out closely followed by the robots who were now shooting at them. Shadow destroyed the robots behind them and began following them. More and more robots appeared as they were chased out with Rouge leading the way to the exit.

They managed to break out with the robots still following them and they were catching up quickly. They stopped in a clearing now far away from the base and turned around to face the robots.

"Looks like these tin cans aren't about to let us get away." Sonic said as he spin dashed towards them in hopes of destroying them. However, he bounced back off the metal as he attacks had no effect.

Rouge tried to kick box one over, but nothing happened and Knuckle's attacks had no effect either. Only Shadow could make only a tiny dent in the metal as he used chaos control to help him.

"Curse that fox." Shadow spat as he strained to knock one of the robots over.

A burst of blue light came from the opposite end of the field which made everyone stop, including the robots. The robots all of a sudden began to short circuit and they all stepped back and watched as the robots twitched and withered before the lights of their eyes went out and they deactivated.

They all turned to where the source of the mysterious energy came from.

"It's about time you showed up." Shadow mumbled as the dark shadow Sonic swore he saw in Eggman's base moved in the darkness of the trees. The light faded and Sky gasped as Sonic strained his eyes to get a better look.

"Dad." Sky whispered.

The dark figure slowly moved towards them and stepped out of the shadows.

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**Cliff hanger because I'm that cruel. Feel free to leave your opinion and sorry this chapter was shorted than the others, but it had to be edited because it was too long.**


	10. Future Sonic

**Thanks for the reviews and this is the chapter you all appear to be waiting for. I own nothing.**

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**X: Future Sonic**

Sonic watched as his future self stepped into view. He was taller and his fur was slightly darker much like what he had seen on Tails' wedding photo. His green eyes were guarded as he took in everyone before him but they soon betrayed their anger when they rested on the past version of himself.

Sonic waved awkwardly and everyone stood there in a stunned silence waiting for someone to make the first move. The whole area was quiet, not even the birds were singing and there was no breeze. It was if you could reach out and touch the tension in the air.

Sky shifted awkwardly and that seemed to wake future Sonic out of his daze. His eyes blazed furiously when he caught sight of her.

"I can explain everything." Sky grinned as she tried to charm her way out of the situation and this seemed to only make future Sonic angrier.

"Uh oh." She gulped and future Sonic began storming towards her. She smiled awkwardly before turning around and running away, leaving a small sonic boom behind her.

"SKY YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" Future Sonic yelled before running after her.

Knuckles began laughing and even Rouge and Shadow smirked.

"Why are you laughing?" Sonic demanded. "We should do something." He added staring into the spot in the trees where they had disappeared.

"Relax." Knuckles chuckled. "You're going to need all your energy for what's about to go down."

"What?" Sonic asked feeling incredibly out of the loop.

Rouge shrugged. "Don't worry about them. Sky's forever doing things like this. She knows he'll catch her eventually so I don't even know why she bothers."

"Why is he…I mean why am I so angry with her?" Sonic asked as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"See for yourself." Knuckles mumbled as everyone looked around nonchalantly and stepped away.

Sonic turned around to see his future self dragging a thrashing Sky out of the forest, though for all her effort to break free, it didn't seem to bother him.

"You know it's a funny story." Sky giggled nervously. "But I don't think it'll suit your sense of humour"

Future Sonic didn't say anything as he continued to drag her into the field.

Sky groaned. "Oh come on dad! Don't tell me you wouldn't have done something similar?"

Sonic froze. Did she just say what he thought she said? Knuckles who was watching Sonic carefully the entire time burst out laughing again, clutching his stomach.

Future Sonic ignored him as he finally let go of Sky who shrunk back from future Sonic who practically had smoke coming out of his ears.

"Would you mind telling me this funny little story of yours then?" Future Sonic said in a calm voice which made it sound all the more threatening. Even Sonic felt slightly scared of his future self.

Dad? He was A FATHER?!

This couldn't be possible! IT JUST COULN'T! It was a sick joke they were all playing on him.

"DAD?!" Sonic wailed and everyone turned to look at him. Rouge, Knuckles and Shadow looked amused, Sky looked uncomfortable and his future self still looked ready to burst with anger.

"Looks like I've upset a lot of people." Sky said nervously. "Maybe I should just head home, I know mum's looking for me."

"She's what?" Future Sonic demanded looking slightly panicky.

"Another funny story." Sky replied.

"Well you better enlighten me then young lady!" He yelled and Sky flinched back.

"Why? You'll just get angrier than you are now." Sky whimpered.

Future Sonic took a deep breath to calm himself. "I don't think I could be any angrier than I am right now. I was working on something with Eggman and all of a sudden you just show up with another version of me and nearly get killed. Thank you very much for that heart attack by the way."

"But you saved us in the end." Sky smiled trying to weasel her way out of it.

"Yeah at the last minute!" Sonic shrieked. "You really scare me sometimes you know that Sky? You get yourself into all kinds of situations, but what happens the next time I'm not around huh? Do you know how much that thought tortures me? You're so reckless. You're –"

"Just like you." Knuckles interrupted smirking.

"Stay out of it Knuckles, you shouldn't have been encouraging her." Future Sonic snapped.

Knuckles snapped. "Yeah because it was totally my idea for her to do all this. You know what Sky's like, she's your responsibility, not mine. You should take care of your kids better."

"Have I lost my mind here?" Sonic yelled interrupting his future self before turning to Sky. "This is the big secret? That you're my dau…" He choked on the word. He choked on the very thought of it.

Sky sighed. "You can say the word you know. Daughter. Yes, I'm your daughter from the future. Pleasure to meet you. Happy now?"

Sonic felt sick. How couldn't he have possibly noticed it? The resemblance between them was unmistakable. Not just in the way she looked but her attitude as well. Not to mention all the things she appeared to have let slip when they were travelling together. Sonic felt like the stupidest person on the planet right now.

He wasn't even paying attention as Sky went on to explain her story to his future self…her father. The thought made Sonic shudder. How could he, Sonic the Hedgehog, ever have kids? Even though Sonic did love kids he could never have any of his own. Too much responsibility and they would take away his freedom. But who was the mother? Sonic felt like he already knew the answer and he wasn't interested in confirming it. Now that he knew this was possible, he would never question any insane notion again.

Sonic was brought out of his thoughts as Knuckles punched him on the shoulder.

"Looking a little pale there Sonic." He sniggered.

"Shut up!" He snapped back and Knuckles pretended to look scared.

"Are you hurt?" Future Sonic asked Sky who shook her head. He sighed with relief and quickly pulled her into a tight hug, all his anger seeming to be forgotten about as she nuzzled into his chest. He held her tightly and protectively as if he wanted to shield her from the world and Sonic felt like he was intruding just watching them interact with each other like this.

"Don't ever do anything like that again." Future Sonic insisted firmly and Sky nodded. "And you're grounded until further notice."

Sky groaned and future Sonic grinned at her.

"But are we cool?" She asked.

Future Sonic nodded. "We're cool."

They both fist bumped each other and Shadow sighed.

"Well now that we've all kissed and made up, can we now focus on the issue that is the king of the underworld threatening to break out?" Shadow said impatiently.

"What?" Future Sonic asked.

"Rouge found a book that helped us figure out the plan." Sonic said. "Cool new powers by the way. How did you do that?"

Future Sonic smirked. "Thanks and you'll just have to find out."

Sonic groaned. "Not even a little spoiler?"

Future Sonic laughed and shook his head.

"If we could get back to business." Shadow said clearing his throat. "You can show off later."

Sky laughed and Rouge pulled out the book and explained everything to Future Sonic that she had explained to everyone else earlier. Sonic noticed how she was dancing around a specific part of the plot and Sonic wondered why. If he knew himself as well as he thought he did, then he'd want to know, but Knuckles looked at him in warning as if he knew what he was thinking. What would be so bad about telling him? She was his…daughter…and he had the right to know.

"Right, this is exactly the information I need." Future Sonic announced as Rouge closed the book. "Come on Sky."

"Where are we going?" Sky asked looking confused.

"I'm taking you home. Vanilla can contact your mom and let her know you're safe." He explained and raised an eyebrow, daring her to challenge him.

Sky did so anyway and folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Yes you are." Future Sonic said getting angry again.

"Dad, I've come this far, I'm not backing out now." She insisted and the others sighed as they knew another argument was going to begin.

Future Sonic frowned at her. "Sky please. This is going to be incredibly dangerous. Not a place for children."

Sky glared back. "Never stopped you did it?"

Knuckles laughed. "She's got you there Sonic."

Future Sonic glared at him. Shadow sighed and scattered the emeralds around a rock that was sticking out of the ground. Future Sonic had placed his in and at last they had all seven. They were ready to attack and future Sonic and Sky were just wasting time.

"She seems like she can hold her own." Sonic said and Sky looked back and beamed at him.

"See dad, even yourself thinks I can stay." She smirked at him and future Sonic glared at his past self.

"See what you've started." Future Sonic said glaring at past Sonic.

"Well technically you just said yes." Sky giggled before poking future Sonic's arm. "You might want to keep an eye on me anyway since the shadow demons have bestowed me with the honour of being their sacrifice."

The others froze as they waited for future Sonic's reaction and everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

"What?" Future Sonic demanded in a quiet voice. It sounded like he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"Oops" Sky mumbled before biting her lip and backing away from future Sonic who's face twisted and he looked like he was in pain.

"Sonic whatever you do, don't transform!" Knuckles begged as he jumped on top of future Sonic to pin him down. "That's what they want and that's why they're after Sky especially. If we keep her with us then we could keep an eye on her better, but if she went home we would have no way of knowing."

Future Sonic's trembling seemed to stop before he collapsed and gasped for air.

"I thought you had your curse under control." Shadow scolded the blue hedgehog who was still lying on the ground face down.

Future Sonic's head snapped up to glare at Shadow. "Yeah well that's the funny thing about dark magic. You can't control it."

"Hang on." Sonic said feeling out of the loop again. "What damn curse? There's no such thing."

"No there isn't." Future Sonic said standing up, pulling Sky closer to him as his eyes scanned the area.

"We'll head to Angel Island where the rift is." Shadow said and everyone nodded and set out to stop the underworld from ripping their world apart.

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**Feel free to leave your opinion. Yes a lot of you guessed correctly. Well done. It seemed almost cruel to drag it out any longer.**


	11. Paradox

**Thanks for reading and reviewing! I own nothing.**

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**XI: Paradox**

"This is all so confusing!" Sonic groaned as he walked next to his future self.

"Tell me about it." He agreed as they walked quickly over the hills towards Angel Island. Shadow had run on ahead with the chaos emeralds in an attempt to stop more shadow demons from leaking out until they got there.

"It's weird thinking your parents had lives before you were born." Sky mumbled and both Sonics looked at her offended before she laughed at their reactions.

"Well done Sky for creating a paradox." Knuckles said. "If the world rips open and reality starts going weird then I know who to blame."

"That's what I can't understand." Sky said. "I know what I did was incredibly stupid, but I just can't understand why nothing weird seems to be happening yet."

"Define weird." Sonic asked as he watched his future…ugh the word just sounded weird coming from him.

Sky ignored his comment. "I would've thought the whole future would've changed by now, I mean that's how it happens on TV and stuff."

"Yeah well life isn't like those silly cartoons you watch." Future Sonic said ruffling her quills and she smacked his hand away in annoyance.

"They're not silly, they're cool." She defended them.

Future Sonic snorted. "Yeah, they're nothing compared to what I get up to on a daily bases."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "There you go again with the showing off. After all this I hope you help me get the master emerald back seen as you're the one who started this whole mess in the first place being reckless as usual."

Future Sonic sighed. "I already promised to help you, it just needs to stay with Eggman for now, we need him to use that machine of his again to close it back up, but it's not ready yet. Just a few more hours."

"Is that why we're walking there instead of using chaos control?" Rouge demanded as she rubbed her sore ankles.

Future Sonic nodded.

"Can we at least stop and rest?" Rouge moaned and didn't even wait for a reply before sitting down on the grass. Everyone reluctantly joined her, but Sonic went for a walk towards the opposite end of the field thinking about everything that had happened.

He didn't expect his future self to be so different. He had new powers and seemed to have gone through a lot over the years and he had a…family. Sonic the Hedgehog actually settled down at one point. What was up with that? For as long as he could remember, he vowed to himself that he would spend all his life running. He would always try out new things and never let the adventure stop and live his life as much as he could. Fighting evil was just something fun he did on the side lines to challenge himself. He would stop and visit his friends occasionally, but he'd soon be off again on another adventure.

"Pretty sure I can guess what you're…I'm…whatever, thinking." Sonic jumped as his future self appeared next to him and leaned against a tree.

"I just don't understand any of this." Sonic answered honestly. "What exactly happens to me in the next few years?"

Future Sonic's face turned grave. "Lots of stuff."

"And you're not going to tell me?"

Future Sonic shook his head. "Well you've already seen what becomes of most of our friends and you've even met Sky. I'll never pretend to understand how time works."

Sonic sighed. "Me neither. Just…a family?"

Future Sonic laughed and nodded.

"When? How?" Sonic spluttered. "What about freedom and adventure?"

Future Sonic managed to stop laughing and answer his question.

"Are you kidding?" He said once he calmed down. "The adventure never stops. Having my family was has been the biggest adventure ever and it never takes my freedom away. I still go out for runs, see my friends and stop evil like I used to. My family doesn't stop me from doing that and now it looks like Sky is entering the business as much as it worries me."

Sonic pulled a face. "I never knew I became so cliché." He muttered. "But Sky, she's a good kid."

"Yeah, she is." Future Sonic smiled as he watched her tease Knuckles and Rouge. "Three more are at home: Alex, Matt and Jade."

Sonic didn't say anything as he took all this information in. He couldn't believe it.

"I still don't understand this whole paradox we've created." He finally responded.

Future Sonic didn't say anything as he looked out onto the horizon.

Sonic looked at him suspiciously. He knew something.

"Whoa!" Knuckles cried out as Shadow Demons began appearing out of the ground."

"No!" Future Sonic yelled as they all began making their way towards Sky. Both Sonic's rushed to the scene and began trying to fight back the shadow demons. Their attacks had little effect on them.

"Ugh, why didn't we just keep one of the emeralds?" Knuckles grunted as he kicked and punched at one of them, but to little affect.

While trying to push back on of the demons, Future Sonic flicked up his wrist communicator. "McNosehair this is blue blur, is that emerald nearly ready."

"I wish you'd stop with that nasty code name!" Eggman snapped back. "It's nearly done, but you'll have to transport it there in the tornado."

"No problem." Future Sonic replied and shut it again before running out the way of a shadow demon that was about to grab hold of him.

"We can't let them get Sky!" Knuckles called out.

"Thank you captain obvious!" Future Sonic snapped and Rouge looked like she was about to say something sarcastic before one of the demons punched her, knocking her over.

"Oh no you don't!" Knuckles yelled as it looked ready to drain the life out of her. "No one messes with that batty girl, but me."

"Well, that line was almost romantic." Rouge mumbled as she watched knuckles punch the creature away from her in shock. His attack had had an effect. Why?

"Hey, they're becoming solid!" Rouge shouted as one of Sonic's attacks finally sent one of the demons flying backwards.

"I think that might be because of me." The pink hedgehog at the edge of the field said as she pulled her hammer out. "Leave them alone!" She screamed before charging towards them and knocking one of them back into the ground.

"How the hell did you do that?" Sonic squeaked as the shadow demons seemed to look at Amy in fear before vanishing completely.

Amy nearly fell backwards when she caught sight of past Sonic, but when she caught sight of Sky she went charging towards her and pulled her up into a tight hug.

"Why did you run away Sky?" She demanded as Sky struggled to breathe. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

She dropped Sky who gasped for air, before turning to future Sonic.

"And you! Disappearing like that without any contact and vanishing off the face of Mobius. What was I supposed to think?"

"Amy." Future Sonic gasped out before running over and hugging her tightly.

Sonic felt like his eyeballs were bleeding. He did not just watch himself willingly hug Amy.

"Save the gooey romantic reunion for later, sounds like we've got a plane to catch." Knuckles said and future Sonic and Amy pulled apart, but future Sonic still kept one arm wrapped around her.

Sonic wanted to vomit. He should've known it would be Amy. Fate seemed to be mocking him right now. Sure he liked the girl when she wasn't obsessing over him, but come on! First he finds out he has kids and now this? What next?

"Not until Sky goes home." Amy said glaring at her daughter.

Sky gasped. "No way. Dad said I could stay."

"And now I'm saying you can't. It's too dangerous." Amy insisted and Sky folded her arms across her chest.

"Tell her dad." Sky demanded and Amy turned to future Sonic who looked at Sky worriedly.

"Amy it's kind of important that Sky stays close because…they want to use her as a sacrifice." Future Sonic explained

"WHAT?!" Amy screamed and future Sonic shushed her, trying to calm her down.

"Don't worry though, I promise I won't let anything happen to her." Future Sonic reassured, but Amy didn't look completely convinced.

"I remember what happened the last time you said something similar to that." Amy whispered and put her hands over what looked like scars on her arms. Future Sonic looked like he's just been punched in the face and Sky looked around awkwardly.

Sonic squinted as he tried to get a better look at Amy. She had certainly changed a lot. Her quills were longer and her outfit had changed to a long red top with rips down the side, white leggings and red boots. One of her golden ring bracelets now had what looked like a gold scorpion on it and her arms were dotted with random scars. It looked like she'd been involved in a really bad fight. What happened to her?

The way his future self seemed to react to the memory, he felt like he didn't want to know. Sonic was still definitely changing this future. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen to anyone like he seemed to have failed to beforehand.

He watched as his future self took a deep breath as if to calm himself before speaking. "Look, all I am saying is that it would be better if we were near her to keep an eye on her." He explained before everyone heard Sky scream.

They turned around to see two shadow demons grab hold of her arms whilst she tried to thrash out of their grip.

"NO!" Everyone shouted as the shadow demons disappeared with Sky in their grasp.

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**Feel free to leave your opinion.**


	12. Kidnapped

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

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**XII: Kidnapped**

Amy collapsed onto her knees as she processed what just happened and future Sonic started that weird trembling again. Rouge had her hand over her mouth in shock and her eyes were wide.

"NO!" Amy cried as she clung onto future Sonic's leg.

"Sonic calm down, this is what they want." Knuckles barked at him as he stormed over to shake future Sonic who looked to be in a daze.

"Well they certainly know what they're doing." Future Sonic whispered and Amy let out another cry.

"I think she's safe for now." Rouge tried to reassure them. "They need Sonic to be in the underworld before they do anything."

"This is all your fault!" Amy snapped at future Sonic and that seemed to wake him out of his daze and he glared at her, his fur turning darker.

"My fault?" His voice sounded slightly manic to the point where Sonic was scared of his own future self.

"This wouldn't have happened if you had just listened to me!" She shrieked as tears poured down her face.

Future Sonic leaned over her and growled. "In case you didn't realise, I was trying to protect her too. You think I wanted this to happen?"

Amy flinched back at his tone slightly but regained her composure and glared at him again.

"Yeah well, it's not the first time you were too slow. This has been happening a lot over the years." Amy said sinisterly.

"That's not fair!" Future Sonic yelled at her.

"STOP IT!" Sonic shouted making everyone turn to face him. "Playing the blame game isn't going to get Sky back. We need to work together."

"Sonic is right Sonic. Jeeze this is confusing, but anyway, we need to get to Tails, collect the master emerald and end this thing once and for all." Knuckles said and future Sonic took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Since when are you the voice of reason?" Rouge asked in an amused voice.

Amy whimpered before hugging future Sonic tightly. "I just want her safely back."

Future Sonic wrapped his arms around her. "Me too."

"Do you think you could teleport us back to Tails' house, Amy?" Knuckles asked and Amy looked up a little worried.

"I'm not sure, but I'll try." She said before looking like she was concentrating very hard.

Soon a warm feeling filled Sonic's body and he felt like he was being yanked in a different direction and when he blinked he was in Tails' back yard.

"Whoa." He gasped out before turning around in time to see Amy collapse in future Sonic's arms.

"Is she ok?" Sonic asked concerned and his future self nodded.

"It just takes a lot out of her." He answered before picking her up and carrying her to the door Tails had now opened. He and Cream were standing there looking at them in shock.

"What happened?" He asked as his best friend walked inside and gently placed Amy down on the couch. He kissed her forehead before turning to Tails.

"We're borrowing your plane and the master emerald, saving my daughter, sealing the portal to the underworld and saving the world. Any objections?" Future Sonic gushed out as he made his way towards Tails' large garage where the tornado was.

Tails shook his head as he helped Sonic and Knuckles attach the master emerald to the plane.

"It would be really helpful if we had you there Tails." Future Sonic begged.

Tails looked unsure.

"I could look after Ben." Cream offered and Tails smiled at her.

"Thank you Cream." He said before turning to future Sonic. "I'm in."

Future Sonic and Tails gave each other a high five and Amy walked in the garage looking miserable. Sonic watched the way his future self looked at her. The way his future self's eyes filled with an emotion that was completely foreign to his past self, but there was something else in the way he looked at her. Guilt. Sonic could tell it wasn't just over Sky but there was something else to their relationship. Sonic's heart lurched at the thought. Out of all his friends, Amy had definitely changed the most. She used to be so bubbly, carefree and happy. Now her green eyes seemed to have lost their innocent sparkle; like she'd been through something dark. The thought scared him. Were none of his friends left uncorrupted? Untainted?

Sonic knew as soon as he got back to his own time, he was going to fix this.

Suddenly Amy gasped and froze and everyone looked at her expectantly apart from Sonic who looked up in confusion. His future self walked over to her and stood next to her, his eyes burning intensely as he stared at her, waiting.

"What it is?" His future self asked without emotion and Tails sighed before looking down and helping Sonic with what he was doing as he continued to watch.

"He's waiting." Amy answered in a quiet voice, her face still blank. "It's cold and it's dark. I see you and you're in pain."

"Any sign of Sky?" Future Sonic asked nervously.

Amy whimpered. "I can't see. I only see you and the king of the underworld."

Her blank expression vanished and her eyes focused back on future Sonic. Both of them looked scared before they hugged each other. Future Sonic rubbed soothing circles on her back while he looked deep in thought. Sonic looked away as he felt like he was intruding on a private moment.

What the hell was Amy talking about and why did her face go all blank like that?

Even though some of his questions had been answered, they only led to more questions that he just couldn't fathom out.

"We're all set." Tails said as he screwed the last bolt into place. The master emerald was now carefully attached to the back of the plane and Tails hopped into the pilot's seat.

"I haven't flown this baby for a year." He said, his voice heavy with emotion as he stroked the joystick.

"Save the emotional reunion for later." Knuckles said as he hopped up and sat in top of the master emerald and Amy climbed into the passenger seat. Both Sonics hopped onto the wings of the plane as usual and Tails started the engine.

"Good luck!" Cream called to them waving, with Ben in her arms and Rouge waved too before winking at Knuckles which he responded to with a grunt. Ben waved at them and they waved back before Tails began the take-off.

Soon enough they were flying high in the air speeding off to Angel Island where the rift was between their worlds.

From this high up, Sonic could see all the territories the shadow demons had taken over and felt angry at how those creatures had sucked the life out of what were once beautiful places he loved to run around in.

The sky got darker and darker the closer they came to Angel Island, the sun disappeared and was replaced by the moon and the ocean turned a dark grey colour. The grass turned dark and dead and all other plant life looked shrivelled up and dark. The air turned cold and Sonic felt himself shivering slightly. The floating island was now in sight and Sonic could see what looked like a giant crack in the air that was completely pitch black and every now and then a shadow demon would leak out. Sonic felt like he wanted to avert his eyes at the strange and frightening vibe the rift gave off and the smell of death leaked out.

"Almost there." Tails sounded above the roar of the plane's engine and began to descend further down and landed the plane in a small area the forest didn't touch.

Everyone hopped off the Tornado and looked up as another shadow demon let out a shriek as it leaked out of the rift and flew off into the distance.

"I can't wait for all this to be over." Knuckles mumbled and everyone nodded in agreement.

Tails flicked some switches and the master emerald glowed even brighter.

"So the plan is we go in there, grab Sky and get out." Future Sonic explained. "Tails flicks that last switch and the rift closes, sealing the underworld off from the rest of the world for all eternity until some other nutter comes along."

"Right." Everyone agreed with the plan.

Sonic turned around and smirked at the rift. "Let the battle commence."

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**Feel free to leave your opinions.**


	13. The Dark Limbo

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

* * *

**XIII: The Dark Limbo**

As they approached the rift they were soon swarmed with shadow demons. The demons shrieked and hissed at them, refusing to let them get any closer to the rift between the dimensions. Shadow appeared in his super form in front of them and shot beams of chaotic energy at the demons who were pushed back.

"Go! I'll distract them." He ordered and everyone nodded at him before quickly diving into the dark rift.

Sonic didn't quite know what to expect to happen when he dived into the land of the dead and spirits, but certainly not this. The area remained in pitch darkness with no source of light. Sonic could still see everyone clearly as if they were walking in the midday sun, but they seemed to just be walking in a dark void.

There were no obstacles and although Sonic could see no floor, he felt like he was walking on a completely flat, smooth surface.

"What the hell is this place?" Knuckles asked as he looked around worriedly. He wasn't exactly a fan of the paranormal.

"Amy," Future Sonic mumbled, "Do you remember any stories the tribe used to tell about this place?"

Sonic wasn't sure what his future self meant, but Amy seemed to.

"I don't remember much, but all I do know is that the King is very cunning and likes to make deals. He's not trustworthy, but he does honour his promises, but I don't remember anything being describe about this place. Although, it does seemed strangely familiar." Amy mused as she looked around in wonder.

Future Sonic smirked. "That's all I need to know."

Sonic wasn't sure what he had up his sleeve, but he hoped it was something good and useful.

As they continued walking further and further away from the rift, Sonic strained his ears to hear what sounded like whispering in the distance. When he listened harder though, it sounded like people screaming and begging for mercy.

"Do you guys hear that?" Tails asked, his voice shaking with fright.

"I'm guessing it's the chambers of punishments." Amy said, glaring straight ahead. "Where the wicked receive torture after they die for all eternity depending on their crimes."

"Whoa." Knuckles mumbled.

As they walked on, they soon saw what looked like a figure in the distance. It appeared to be hunched over and trembling, with a cloak covering up their face.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sonic asked as they approached.

The person in the cloak nodded before taking a deep breath and standing up, still shaking slightly.

"Sorry." The voice rasped. "I'm just so tired. I haven't moved this much in while." He let out a low chuckle.

"Are you a ghost?" Tails asked nervously and the strange man chuckled again.

"No." He answered before sighing. "Although sometimes I wish I was."

"Huh?" Sonic said looking at the cloaked man in confusion.

"It's a sad existence when one cannot die." The man explained. "It's long, it's boring and tiring."

"Why can't you die then?" Knuckles asked suspiciously.

"It is my curse." He replied bowing his head in shame. "I was once the great guardian of the Scorpion temple, but I was eager to find out more about the deep magic that drives the world. I messed around with taboo magic and was caught doing so. I thought I could have power over the dead and be able to see spirits. As punishment, my eyes were gauged out and I was cursed to spend eternity working among the dead and the demons and spirits." He said before sighing in a melancholy way.

"You're the King of the underworld." Amy gasped and everyone took a hesitant step away from him.

The old man pulled back his hood and to Sonic's shock he saw a grey hedgehog with deep wrinkles and black hollowed out eye sockets that stared at them intensely. He was incredibly skinny too and he looked really tired and fed up.

"I wouldn't say King." He mumbled sarcastically. "I have no kingdom amongst the stupid souls here, the only reason I have power over death is because I was a chosen one of Scorpion." He said eyeing Amy's bracelet greedily.

Amy covered it with her hand and glared at him.

"But that was over a thousand years ago and I see the power has passed to a new keeper." He said staring at Amy with those hollow eyes.

She didn't say anything.

The old hedgehog continued to stare at her in a calculating way. "I saw your little episode with the knife a few years back. Very brave of you, and I am so sorry about the curse." Amy flinched, but the King continued on. "Very unfortunate that such a tragedy should happen to a pretty women such as yourself."

"Leave her alone." Future Sonic threatened as Amy looked close to tears.

"Ah, you must be Sonic the Hedgehog." The King chuckled. "From what I understand, you've been cursed too like your wife. Why don't you two join me and we can get revenge on the tribe together. You will all be valuable allies."

"We're not interested in petty revenge." Future Sonic snapped, but the King just smiled.

"How could you not be?" He asked. "That tribe ruined your life, just admit how much the curse burns in your soul."

Future Sonic shuddered, but regained his composure.

"I said no. Now where's Sky?" He demanded.

"I forgot you were the impatient one." The King muttered before speaking up. "She's stashed somewhere safe and you can have her back once you join me."

"Maybe he'll listen to force." Knuckles chuckled before running over to punch the King, but his fist just went right through his body.

"Sorry sir, but you don't have the magical might that I'm looking for." The King laughed before staring longingly at Future Sonic and Amy again.

Sonic stood there feeling confused. He wasn't magical in anyway unless you counted being able to use the power of the chaos emeralds. The only power Amy had was that crazy hammer of hers that Sonic often felt the brute force of way more often than what he would like. The King seemed so interested in them for some reason and Sonic wanted to know why. Maybe if he changed this in the future then the King of the underworld might not want to come after them.

Sonic heard a shriek and everyone turned around to see Sky appear being held back by two shadow demons. She looked tired and drained as she fought to stand up and break free of the demons' grasp on her. Future Sonic began trembling slightly again and the King smirked.

"Only you can save her Sonic." The King said smirking evilly. "Just say you'll help me get my revenge…your revenge. Don't you want to pay them back for what they did to you and Amy? What they are now doing to your family? We could find a cure, help you control it."

Future Sonic said nothing as he looked like he was fighting something back. He screwed his eyes tightly shut and Sonic watched as his future self looked like he was chanting or singing something to keep himself calm. Sonic's heart beat erratically in his chest at the disturbing sight. Everyone else kept their distance from him with worried expressions.

"Don't listen to him Sonic." Amy begged, looking like she desperately wanted to approach him, but couldn't.

"Don't worry about him sweet Amy." The King said. "You'd never have to worry about him again if you join me. I could find a cure for you too, imagine how much happier your life will be and you and Sonic could get back to the way you used to be. You could live in peace with your family for all eternity. I would make sure of that."

Amy didn't say anything as she bit down on her lip and looked desperately at Sky who looked like she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Poor dear, if you will not join me, I might as well put her out of her misery. After all, I do need a sacrifice." The King laughed as he pulled out a knife and began walking towards her.

"NO!" Future Sonic shrieked as Sonic stared in shock as his future self vanished into thin air.

The King turned around to watch the show with a huge smile on his face.

"Fascinating." He mumbled as he looked around to try and see where the blue hedgehog went.

Everyone else looked around worriedly and Sonic could hear his heart in his ears as he tried to listen out for any sign of himself.

They all jumped when one of the shadow demons was sliced in half before disappearing into a cloud of dark smoke that drifted away and then the same happened to the other shadow demon. Sky was swept off her feet by a dark figure and all Sonic could see was the white of his eyes that glowed threateningly.

"Run!" The figured commanded in a harsh voice before flying towards the rift with Sky in his arms and everyone followed without question.

"You fools!" Sonic heard the King shrieked. "Don't let them get away."

Sonic didn't need to look back to know that shadow demons were following them. They burst through the rift and Tails immediately ran towards the machine and held his hand over the switch.

Future Sonic carefully placed a now unconscious Sky on the ground and stroked her forehead before running to face the rift where the King and shadow demons were about to break out.

Shadow appeared in front of them in his super form and created a chaos shield around the portal to prevent them from leaping out.

"Good curse control there Sonic." Knuckles complimented future Sonic who smiled back.

"Tails you might want to flick that switch now." Sonic encouraged nervously as Shadow struggled to hold them back. Sonic paused when he saw Tails' face go pale as he stared at the rift with his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Tails, what is it buddy?" Future Sonic asked as he looked to see where Tails was looking and gasped.

Sonic looked up to see what had everyone so startled and he couldn't help but gasp too at the ghostly sight before him.

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**Feel free to leave your opinions.**


	14. Ghostly Blackmail

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

* * *

**XIV: Ghostly Blackmail**

"Tails." The female fox on the other side of the rift sighed out as her eyes met his.

"K-Kiko?" Tails gasped out, sounding like he was having trouble breathing.

"I do believe this pretty little thing was your wife young Tails." The King chuckled. "Until death did you part."

Tails looked like he was on the verge of tears and future Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder, which the fox shrugged off and took a step forward.

"Now then, one wrong move and this precious spirit is sent straight to the torture chambers for all eternity." The King threatened.

"You can't do that! That defies the laws of death!" Amy shrieked at him.

"Oh I can do just that. I am the King of the underworld, I can do whatever the hell I want. Besides, you're one to talk Amy Rose about defying the laws of death, I still need to think of an appropriate karma for that." The King mused as he tapped a finger on his chin in thought.

"Leave her alone." Future Sonic begged. "Hasn't she suffered enough at the hands of your vile people?"

"And whose fault was that Sonic?" The King laughed and all the colour drained from future Sonic's face.

"Thought that would shut you up." The King said. "Back to business. I think you could help me out Tails, considering two certain hedgehogs want to protect the people that betrayed them."

The King smirked as he stroked a finger over Kiko's trembling form.

"I'll do anything!" Tails begged as he fell to his knees in front of the rift where the King watched. "Just don't hurt her. Don't hurt her."

"His attitude I like." The King said as everyone watched helplessly.

"Don't listen to him Tails." Kiko said. "Innocent lives are more important than what happens to me in the afterlife."

"Aw, how sweet." The King cooed before smiling evilly at Tails. "I believe saving innocent lives was what got her into this mess in the first place."

"Just stop it!" Tails shrieked as he covered his ears with tears now flowing freely down his face.

Sonic stood there watching the scene feeling powerless. He had never felt out of his element before, but he certainly did now. There was nothing he could do without fearing that he would make it worse. His best friend was breaking apart in front of him and when he looked over at his future self, it looked like he was having a minor breakdown too.

Sonic watched as his future self sat there on the floor looking like he was in a trance while Amy tried to get him to snap out of it, with Knuckles' help.

"Tell you what." The King began and this seemed to wake future Sonic up as he stared with determination at the King, analysing his next move carefully.

The King cleared his throat before beginning. "It has come to my attention that Sonic has actually helped me after all."

"What?" Knuckles demanded, his eyes darting from future Sonic to the King.

The King smirked. "I see you and that scientist re-installed the switch that opened the rift in the first place instead of one that closes it, this time it will allow me to escape."

Future Sonic said nothing.

"Sonic?" Amy whispered in shock.

"You traitor!" Knuckles yelled.

"Here's what I'm going to do." The King said turning back to Tails. "Mechanic boy is going to activate the switch that will allow me to fully break free of my prison here and in exchange, I will give you back Kiko, alive and healthy."

Everyone gasped at the offer and Tails darted towards the switch.

"Tails no!" Kiko shrieked, but the King clasped a hand tightly over her mouth.

Knuckles tried to jump on top of Tails to try and stop him from reaching the switch, but missed. Amy teleported in front of him and managed to grab hold of him, pinning his arms to his side.

"Listen Tails, you do this and the world as we know it ends." Amy tried to reason with him.

Tails only shrieked in response as he tried to break free, but Amy held on.

"Please Tails just think, the world would be ripped apart and many innocent lives will be lost and Kiko doesn't want anything like that to happen." Amy explained.

"You'd do it for Sonic." Tails yelled as he thrashed and finally wriggled out of Amy's grip.

"Tails no!" Kiko screamed as she managed to get free of the King.

This made Tails freeze, his hand just a few centimetres above the switch.

"You're about to cause the next apocalypse." Kiko gasped out as shadow demons grabbed hold of her. "I would gladly die a million deaths than see innocent people suffer."

The King pretended to wipe a tear away as Tails' hand began to relax.

"I can't go on living without you, knowing that I could have you back." Tails whimpered as tears ran down his face.

"You have to." Kiko explained and if dead people could cry, it looked like she'd be sobbing. "Ben needs you though, you'll always have a part of me in him and he's proof that our love was real; still is real."

"How sentimental." The king groaned. "What's it going to be Tails?"

Tails kept his gaze locked with Kiko who pleaded with him with her eyes. Eyes that Sonic knew were brown from the photos he had seen, but were now a ghostly grey as her spirit flickered in the moonlight.

The twin tailed fox was caught between a rock and a hard place.

The shadow demons wailed with impatience.

"Just look at what I am offering all of you." The King sighed as he rubbed a hand against his forehead in irritation. "Tails, you can have the love of your life back. Sonic and Amy, I could cure your curses and let your family live in safety and peace, all of you can live in safety and peace. Why would you deny that? I'll never understand people."

Amy stepped forward and glared at him.

"Then you were no true holder of the Scorpion power." She hissed at him. "It's not just about death and defence and revenge, it's also about passion and being caring to others."

The King huffed in annoyance. "Petty words won't save you, are you going to take the offer?"

Everyone shook their heads except Tails who stared miserably at the switch that could end the world.

"Flick the switch Tails." Future Sonic ordered and everyone's eyes flickered to future Sonic in shock.

Sonic stared at his future self in horror. He couldn't possibly be considering this?

But future Sonic continued to look at Tails with a determined expression. "Flick the switch." He demanded again.

"You can't be serious?!" Knuckles shrieked. "After everything…you're siding with him? You really are a traitor!"

"I'm glad to see we have come to an understanding Sonic." The King beamed at him proudly, his hollow eyes burning intensely at the thought of being free for the first time in thousands of years.

"Sonic what are you thinking?" Amy shrieked.

Tails stared at his best friend in shock, his hand once again hovering above the switch.

Future Sonic nodded, encouraging him. "Trust me."

Without any further thought, Tails flicked the switch.

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**Feel free to leave your opinions.**


	15. Spoilers

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

* * *

**XV: Spoilers**

Sonic's eyes slowly drifted open, only for him to quickly close them again as the bright light stung his eyes. He groaned and placed a hand on his head before opening his eyes again expecting to wake up at Tails' place back home, thinking that this whole thing had been a crazy dream.

As his vision cleared he remembered that he wasn't dreaming and was left even more confused when he saw he had woken up in the middle of Angel Island next to the shrine of the master emerald. He looked around and saw all his friends from the future waking up too, looking dazed and confused. The sun was shining down on them as if the shadow demons had never existed. The master emerald was gleaming brightly with the chaos emeralds scattered around next to it. The grass was green and soft and everywhere was covered in flowers and everything looked just as it normally would.

"What just happened?" Sky asked as she rubbed her dizzy head.

Sonic recognised most of the people there, his friends from over the years and also some unfamiliar faces of their future families.

"If you'd just let me explain!" Sonic heard his future self shriek and he turned around to see Knuckles chasing after future Sonic with a murderous expression.

"You surrendered to the enemy! How will you explain this one?" Knuckles barked as he continued to pursue future Sonic, trying to punch him.

"This is just all part of my plan." Future Sonic insisted and Knuckles froze. "Lose the battle to win the war."

"And you didn't think to tell us because…?" Knuckles pressed on before trying to punch him again which he managed to dodge.

"It was a need to know only plan, I couldn't have the King of the underworld suspect what was really going on because let's face it, you're a bad actor Knucklehead." Future Sonic chuckled.

"Kiko!" Everyone turned around at the shriek at Tails' voice.

There in flesh and blood, stood at the opposite end of the meadow was Kiko, alive and healthy like the King had promised.

Tails and Kiko ran over to each other and embraced each other tightly and Tails kissed every inch of her face.

"Mommy!" Ben yelled as he ran over to them too and the three of them collapsed onto the ground wrapped in each other's arms.

Everyone smiled at the happy reunion.

"I don't understand, I thought she was dead." Charmy whispered to Vector who elbowed him.

"Way to ruin the moment." Vector snapped at him and Charmy just shrugged.

"Dad!" Another boy shrieked and Sonic turned around to see two small male hedgehogs running towards his future self. Sonic gasped. The eldest one was the spitting image of him while the other was a lighter blue and had Amy's jade green eyes rather than his emerald ones. Cream came running out if the trees with a tiny purple hedgehog in her arms followed by her mother, Vanilla.

"Mr Sonic." Cream yelled and future Sonic turned and immediately reached out for the small purple hedgehog.

Amy and Sky came running over and they all hugged each other tightly.

Sonic's heart leaped at the sight and he managed to make himself breathe again. This was his…family?

"Gee Sky, why did you have to go and get sacrificed?" The eldest boy demanded looking at her accusingly.

Sky stuck her tongue out at him and he just rolled his eyes.

"D-Dadda." The small female purple hedgehog giggled. Sonic tried to remember her name…Jade was it?

"Of all places to say your first word?" Amy gasped out and future Sonic fist bumped the air.

"In your face Amy, you owe me a night out." Future Sonic laughed and Amy rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe you still remember the competition after everything that's happened." Amy muttered.

Sonic laughed at the scene. He knew he was competitive, but wow. He actually competed with Amy over their children's first words? The thought made him smile before he could stop himself. He felt his heart swell with an unknown emotion as he watched himself with his future family, happy to see each other again after a long separation. Sky looked visibly happier too and more relaxed now they were all together again.

Maybe there were parts to his future that he didn't want to change after all?

"So what's this plan of yours then?" Knuckles demanded, tapping his foot impatiently.

Future Sonic looked up and handed Jade over to Amy.

"You did this for me?" Tails gasped out as he approached future Sonic with tears in his eyes. "Now I see, you knew all along didn't you?" He asked as his eyes darted between past Sonic and future Sonic.

"This whole time travel makes sense now." Tails said as he hugged future Sonic tightly. "Thank you for everything."

"Don't cry or you'll set me off." Future Sonic chuckled and Tails pulled back.

"I thought you hated tears?" Tails laughed.

Sonic smiled. "Yes Tails, I knew all along." Future Sonic replied. "And I know exactly what happens next and what we need to do."

Sonic wasn't too sure what his future self was going on about, but he continued to listen intently.

"The reason I let him out was so that Kiko could come back and all of you guys would be safe from harm in this protection bubble he's placed us in. As Amy said, the King keeps his word." Future Sonic explained. "He's first target will obviously be the tribe because they're the ones who imprisoned him there in the first place, so that's where we'll cut him off. Shadow and my past self and I will go there and push him back into the underworld."

"How exactly are you going to do that?" Knuckles asked.

"Chaos control. The chaos emeralds are what caused him to be sealed there in the first place and that's how we'll send him back." Future Sonic answered. "Are you with me?" He asked, turning to his past self and Shadow.

They both nodded and future Sonic grinned at them.

"One guess what comes next." Sky whispered excitedly as she watched them head over to the chaos emeralds.

The powerful gems rose up into the air as they sensed their need for their power. They spun around the three hedgehogs and Sonic closed his eyes as he felt the familiar warm power entering his body as his fur changed from its usual blue to a bright gold. He opened his eyes which were now a crimson red and his quills stuck up.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" The three hedgehogs yelled as all their friends and family cheered them on. They flew up and blasted their way out of the protective bubble made for them.

They broke out into the real Angel Island where the rift was. Everywhere now was dark and dead and Sonic looked down at the world in worry. Had people already been killed? He hoped not and trusted his future self's judgement that the King would head straight for this tribe everyone kept going on about.

Sonic followed his future self and Shadow who seemed to know where they were going.

"What is this tribe anyway?" Sonic asked, but they didn't reply which frustrated Sonic. "Can I not even have a little spoiler?"

"I really don't think you want one." Future Sonic replied in a sinister voice and Sonic frowned.

"Has your curse been cured then?" He asked hopefully.

This made future Sonic stop mid- flight and he turned around to glare at his past self.

"What do you know of my curse?" He demanded in a harsh voice and Sonic glared in reply.

"Nothing because nobody tells me anything."

Shadow growled menacingly. "Can we save the spoilers for later and sort this thing out."

They continued flying across the planet until they flew over a very dense looking forest. Sonic looked down in wonder, he felt like he'd been here before but he didn't entirely recognise it.

"To answer your question." Future Sonic finally replied. "No it hasn't. The King doesn't know of any cures because curses this severe are harder to cure. He promised he'd find one, not that he would give it to me and I'm going to use his curse against him."

Sonic tried to think of any hint as to what his future self's curse might be. How did he get it anyway? However he got it, it appeared to haunt him. Didn't the King also say Amy had been cursed too? Sonic thought back to when they were at Tails' house, how Amy suddenly went all stiff and began saying strange things. What she had described sounded exactly like the limbo they were in. Then it clicked.

"Seeing the future…that's Amy's curse isn't it?" Sonic demanded.

Future Sonic's eyes widened before narrowing again as he continued to look straight ahead. "More like seeing all the bad things that happen in the future." He mumbled in reply.

Sonic gasped. Was that the reason Amy was so different and no longer her bubbly self as much? If all he saw were bad things then Sonic knew that he'd go mad.

"That's why she's so different?" Sonic pressed on hoping to get more information.

Future Sonic looked like he had a tear in his eye, but blinked it away before Sonic could be sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Not exactly." Future Sonic whispered.

Sonic was about to keep questioning when he was silenced by lights in the distance and what looked like a stone pyramid. Then he could hear screams and Shadow and future Sonic dived down followed by Sonic.

Sonic gasped at what he saw. There were different coloured fabric tents being burnt to the ground and many hedgehogs were running around screaming. Some were chanting as they gripped pieces of jewellery, but whatever they were trying to do seemed to have no effect.

"It's good to be home!" Sonic heard the King yell as he stood amongst the flames, glaring at the three hedgehogs in their super forms.

_Bring it on, _Sonic smirked.

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**Feel free to leave your opinions.**


	16. The Final Battle

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nothing.**

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**XVI: The Final Battle**

"Surrender now!" Future Sonic demanded as he glowed with chaos energy.

"I see you've now gone against me." The King pouted. "Just look at them Sonic, doesn't it just bring you pleasure to see them all running scared."

"They're not all guilty!" Future Sonic yelled as he shot a beam of energy towards the King which Shadow and Sonic copied. The King deflected all of them though, forcing them to hit the tents instead and more people screamed.

"But still, don't you want revenge?" The King still tried to persuade as he shot more fire towards the many families of hedgehogs that ran away screaming.

"I had my piece of unwilling revenge." Future Sonic muttered as he tried to shoot more energy at the King. He created a shield of fire around him which easily protected him. This guy is tough, Sonic thought as he flew around him trying to get a better shot. The King prevented his attacks without even looking at him.

"Ah yes, you're little episode when you were first cursed." The King laughed. "Most impressive killing one's parents like that."

Sonic froze in mid-air to gaze in horror at his future self. He watched future Sonic's reaction carefully who looked indifferent to what the King had just said. Sonic could never remember having parents. What was the King talking about?

"Keep attacking!" Shadow commanded Sonic and pushed him forward with a hard shove. Sonic glared at the psychopathic black hedgehog, but did as he was told.

"What's the matter Sonic?" The King continued laughing evilly. "Have I hit a nerve?"

Future Sonic didn't answer as he shot another blast of energy at the King. This time he was unprepared as he was sent flying backwards and collided with the giant stone pyramid.

"Oh you'll pay for that." The King groaned as he pulled himself out of the rubble.

"This ends now!" Future Sonic yelled.

"You could still join me you know." The King said trying to get him to join again. "You truly are a very powerful creature, one of the most powerful I've seen for generations and yet no one ever truly appreciates how powerful you are Sonic the Hedgehog. Why even as you aged you became even more powerful than the ultimate life form."

Future Sonic and Shadow exchanged a glance and then looked back at the King.

"Just image how much potential you still hold." The king mused as he looked at future Sonic with his greedy hollowed out eye sockets. "I could help you unlock that. I believe you and me are destined to be partners in cleansing the world of evil. Side by side. Imagine all the places you could run once we expand our empire over the universe. You and your little family living in a safe, evil free universe. The shadow demons only clean the world of dirty sinners."

"I've done bad things, everyone has. No one is completely innocent." Future Sonic said glaring at the King.

"I've been watching you Sonic, since the moment you were blessed as a young child. I knew there was something in you. When you do bad things, you do it for the sake of good…like me."

Future Sonic growled. "I am nothing like you."

Sonic and Shadow shot more energy at him which he easily deflected and Sonic let out a cry of frustration. This directed the King's attention to him.

"Ah yes, I forgot about our little time paradox." The King said as he crossed his arms across his chest as he stared Sonic up and down like a piece of meat. "How are you liking your future Sonic?"

"It will look a whole lot brighter once you're out the picture." Sonic yelled as he shot more chaos energy at him. Sonic didn't know why he even bothered as the King deflected it again.

"I hope you have taken a good look at it Sonic because as I've watched you over the years, it certainly isn't all flowers and niceness." The King explained as he looked around at the fire that burnt down all the tents, leaving nothing but ashes. "It's all a downhill crash from the moment you get back to your own time. It was such entertainment to watch you unleash the monster inside you and finally unlock the true power within yourself."

Sonic stopped and watched the King in fascination.

"Don't listen to him you fool!" Shadow snarled at him, but Sonic blocked him out.

"What power?" Sonic asked, his eyes widening.

"You haven't told him?" The King said, turning to smirk at future Sonic. "How did it happen again? Ah yes, it all boils down to your wife, Amy."

"Don't you dare." Future Sonic growled out through clenched teeth and glanced at his past self with a panicked look on his face.

The King laughed. "Ever since you met that pink hedgehog, it all went back to her. Your fates intertwined and I'd never seen anything like it. Yet you betrayed her like that, I see she still has the scars."

Future Sonic's colour flickered from gold to a very dark blue and back to gold again. Sonic watched himself in horror as his future self began to shake.

"Come on Sonic." The King goaded. "Just remember all that anger you felt, the pain. It could happen again you know. The evil people in the world would come after her. Come after your family. They could hurt her again."

"Shut up!" Future Sonic screamed as his colour flickered again.

"I'm only telling you the truth." The King chuckled as he leaned forward and watched in fascination as future Sonic's colour flickered again. "Remember how you felt when Amy fell in front of you. When they dragged her away kicking and screaming, when you found her in the woods the day after she was cursed. They did this to her, they could do it to your children. They cannot be trusted and we must have our revenge."

Shadow growled and shot at the King again, but once again he deflected, his eyes still on future Sonic.

"Don't listen to him faker!" Shadow yelled. "He's just trying to get you on side. Remember how Amy warned you about how persuasive he can be."

"Amy." Future Sonic whispered her name.

The King smirked. "Yes, Amy. She could be safe forever, no curse, no bad memories, just you and her together, safe and happy like you always wanted. You're too powerful and good to be tainted by what this tribe did to you."

Future Sonic's colour flickered again only this time for longer. Judging by Shadow's facial expression, Sonic knew this couldn't be a good thing.

"Just reach down into your power and curse Sonic." The King urged looking at future Sonic in excitement. "Remember everything they did to you and unleash that anger."

"Sonic no!" Shadow cried out as future Sonic's colour switched to dark blue again. Dark flames danced off him and his eyes glowed white and he laughed manically.

Sonic floated there with his mouth agape as he stared at himself in horror. He felt like he was going to be sick. This was his curse? He transformed into this darker version of himself? It wasn't quite like his dark spine form. He had been in control when that happened. This looked different. He looked wild and untamed and completely out of control.

The King smiled proudly once he realised future Sonic was staying in this form.

"Not again." Shadow mumbled as he tried to fly down and reach the darkened form of Sonic.

Future Sonic looked up at him and held his hand out in front of him and Sonic blinked as what looked like dark magic wrapped around Shadow and held him still as he tried to break free. Sonic soon found himself in the same situation without even realising at first as he was too busy staring at his future self.

"Yes, that's it Sonic." The King praised. "Now unleash your revenge."

Dark Sonic floated there and did nothing as he looked at the King and cocked his head to one side. The King looked at him in confusion before future Sonic reached his hands out in front of him. He clawed at the air and it looked like he'd ripped open the fabric of space and time in a quick and easy stroke.

Sonic watched in amazement while Shadow smiled once he caught on to what future Sonic was doing.

"Wait, what are you doing?" The King demanded sounding panicked.

Dark Sonic laughed manically. "Unleashing my revenge."

Another rift had opened and the King began to be dragged towards it as if being sucked into a black hole.

"No!" The King screamed. "This curse will not contain me again."

"I, Sonic the Hedgehog." Future Sonic began. "Chosen one of chaos, blessed by their magical powers and keeper of peace and nature curse you to spend eternity in the underworld and shall now forever more remain unable to escape."

A dark magic leaked out of future Sonic and crept slowly towards the King who had grabbed hold of a tree in an attempt to prevent himself from being sucked back in.

"You think you could control me through my curse to act out your revenge?" Dark Sonic laughed. "Not a chance."

"But…how could you curse me." The King panted before screaming as the dark magic entered him. "You were never initiated into the tribe!"

"Yeah, but my wife was and seen as we're two parts of a whole, I can curse you." Dark Sonic chuckled as the King screamed again in pain as the dark magic finally settled inside him.

Sonic squinted as the breeze picked up and the King's grip on the tree began to loosen. Sonic shot a final blast of energy towards the King and the tree trunk snapped, causing the King to let go.

"No!" The King screamed as the rift pulled him back towards the underworld. "This cannot be how it ends!"

Sonic watched in anticipation as the King was dragged towards the rift by the force of his curse and he vanished into the rift with a loud bang that sounded like a lightning strike. The rift pulsated as it accommodated its victim and the three hedgehogs all nodded at each other, knowing what to do.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" They shouted and the rift imploded on itself as it sealed up, collapsing in on itself. The force sent a shock wave through the entire forest and the fires started by the King extinguished themselves.

The dead landscape began to come back to life. Sonic landed on the ground and watched in fascination as the grass began to gradually turn green and flowers grew back out of the ground and trees also gained their leaves and colours back. It was like watching a time lapse of spring rolling in and Sonic sighed as birds began to sing again.

The world was healing itself and returning back to normal.

Future Sonic and Shadow also landed on the ground and future Sonic turned back to gold as he watched the world gain its life back.

"You let your curse take over on purpose so you could so that, didn't you?" Shadow asked, unable to hide his amazement.

Future Sonic smiled and nodded. "I did it because I knew I'd done it before." He replied and smiled at past Sonic.

Everything then fell into place in Sonic's mind.

"You mean, there is no paradox? You were in my situation years ago and you knew all this was going to happen?" Sonic asked in awe.

Future Sonic nodded again. "How brilliant am I? I must say I even impressed myself with my plan. Of course I had to improvise sometimes because I couldn't remember everything that happened, but still it worked out in the end." He explained picking a flower and sniffing it.

Sonic didn't say anything as he tried to process everything he had just been told. All along, his future self knew how this would end because he had previously been in Sonic's place. Sonic felt breathless at the thought.

He'd never understand damn time travel.

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**Feel free to leave your opinions.**


	17. Peace and Explanations

**Thanks for the reviews. I own nada!**

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**XVII: Peace and Explanations**

"And that's how we saved the world." Future Sonic finished explaining to everyone as past and future Sonic took a bow while Shadow stood there motionless and sulking as usual. Everyone else clapped and cheered and the master emerald shone brightly with all the positive energy around it.

Everyone had now broke free of the bubble after the King of the underworld was defeated and they successfully closed the first rift that had opened when all this had started. The hot summer sun was shining down on them, the sky had cleared and all the flora and fauna were returning. The shadow demons that had remained trapped in this world were dying out and Sonic didn't think they'd be hearing from them again anytime soon.

Still his thoughts remained haunted by what he had seen here in the future; where his life was apparently heading. The things the King had said…his curse. Sonic tried to shake his head to banish the thought. He'd have to look out for that tribe in the future. There was no way he was being cursed like that.

"So you knew I was going to go back in time and get you all along?" Sky gasped and future Sonic laughed and nodded.

Sky thought about this a moment. "Does that mean I'm still grounded?" She asked carefully and everyone laughed.

"Yes Sky you're still grounded." Future Sonic said before smiling. "But for helping save the world, I am ungrounding you."

"Woohoo!" Sky shrieked. "In your face Alex! This means I can whoop your ass on Extreme Gear!"

"Where did you hear such language?" Amy demanded before glaring at future Sonic who whistled and pretended not to notice.

As the sun began to set people started heading home until only Sonic, his future self and family and Knuckles remained.

"That was really nice what you did for Tails." Knuckles admitted to future Sonic as he leaned back against the stone steps that lead to the master emerald. "Even I'll admit that it was a clever plan."

Future Sonic smiled as he watched his kids chase each other around the field.

"Well as I said, I'd been through it before." He replied. "The King of the underworld had a weird fascination with my curse and thought he could control me when it took over, but as I told you before, I've been learning to control it over the years."

"Impressive." Knuckles commented. "So he's stuck there for all eternity again?"

Future Sonic nodded. "When all else fails, hope you have a wife with powerful Zanybe magic in her." He said before winking at Amy who laughed.

"Nice to know I'm useful for something." She giggled starting to sound like her old bubbly self again.

Sonic stood awkwardly to one side as he continued to think about these events. Surely there had to be a way he could change them? It was his future right? He could do whatever he wanted. Sonic started to get a headache as he thought about time and how it worked. It was all so confusing.

Future Sonic noticed Sonic's expression and walked over to him.

"Want to take a walk?" He asked and Sonic nodded and began walking next to his future self as they walked into the forest surrounding the shrine.

"I think I remember what I…err…you're thinking." Future Sonic said after a long silence.

Sonic sighed. "I just…the thought of going back and looking at my friends, knowing what they are about to go through doesn't bear thinking about. Can you not even give me some more hints or better yet explain everything to me?"

"I can't." Future Sonic said. "I wish I could, but I don't want to mess things up. Someone once told me that taking a path to avoid a certain future is ultimately the path that leads to that exact future. People need to find out things on their own. These past few days, you only got a tiny taste of what's to come."

Sonic huffed in annoyance before smirking. "Not even a little spoiler?"

Future Sonic laughed. "Where's the fun in life if you know exactly what's going to happen. It's not all bad though even though we've gone on a lot about how much has changed, but we're still the same to a certain extent. We've just grown up a lot and had ups and downs in life like most people have."

"This is getting too cheesy for my liking." Sonic replied, wrinkling his nose.

"It's the truth though." Future Sonic said. "You have so many adventures to come, new powers to discover and lots and lots of drama."

"Sounds about right to me." Sonic muttered.

"But." Future Sonic said interrupting Sonic's thoughts as he pulled a piece of paper out and handed it to him. "This was given to me many years ago, right here in this exact spot. A very small spoiler for you."

Sonic unfolded the worn out looking piece of lined paper and recognised his own scruffy handwriting.

_Beware of the Zanybe._

"That's it." Sonic demanded. "Is that the tribe you've all been going on about?"

His future self nodded with a grim expression on his face.

"That's all I can tell you though."

Sonic sighed and folded the piece of paper back up and held it tightly in his hands. "Thanks, but what exactly is this curse? It looks so similar to the time I absorbed the negative emotions in the rings."

"Ah." Future Sonic said. "There's something I definitely can't talk about. I wouldn't want to scare you."

"Scare me?" Sonic gasped in disbelief. "Pu-lease."

Future Sonic smiled before they turned around to head back to the shrine.

"I still can't believe I actually settle down." Sonic laughed at the thought. Who would've guessed it?

Future Sonic snorted. "Was I really always this stubborn?"

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Just admit to yourself that you like Amy." Future Sonic smirked down at his past self.

Sonic felt his cheeks going red. Again with this whole setting him up with Amy.

"I like her as a friend and nothing more and I can't see that changing anytime soon." Sonic answered as he glared down at the grass.

"Suit yourself." Future Sonic sighed. "Just give her a chance and you'll soon see."

Sonic snorted. "Yeah right."

They arrived back at the shrine and Sonic felt a little better after his little talk with his future self. He felt prepared for the future now. He knew to look out for that tribe in the future and to stay away from them. From what people were saying, he had a feeling they were bad news. So these are the people that had cursed him then? Why would they do a thing like that? If he did happen to encounter them, then he was determined to stay on their good side.

As soon as Sky saw them she ran over to them in a light blue blur.

"I see she inherited our speed?" Sonic commented to his future self.

He nodded. "And she uses it to her advantage."

Sky rolled her eyes. "Stop putting the cookie jar on the lowest shelf then. You and mom are practically asking for it sometimes."

"Yeah well be careful otherwise you might end up as fat as Eggman." Sonic laughed.

"Wouldn't want that now would we?" Sky giggled. "But with my high metabolism, I don't think that will be happening. Unlike him, I don't want stupid robots to do my dirty work."

"That's not what you said when I asked you to clean your room." Future Sonic said and Sky cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Shouldn't he be getting back to his party?" She asked changing the subject and pointing at past Sonic.

Sonic gasped. He'd completely forgotten.

"Can I take him home dad please please please." Sky begged and future Sonic thought for a second.

"Fine, but no exploring. You come straight home." He said. Sky squealed and jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly before jumping back down again and grabbed the light blue chaos emerald.

"I've probably missed the whole party now." Sonic mumbled as he stepped closer to Sky.

"Relax, it'll be like you never left." She said winking at him and holding the chaos emerald up.

"Chaos control!" And with those words, they were once again being transported through time and space.

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**Feel free to leave your opinions. **


	18. Back to the Start

**Last chapter guys! But don't get all upset because I have an exciting announcement at the bottom of the chapter. Thanks for reviewing and I own nothing.**

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**XVIII: Back to the Start**

Sonic opened his eyes to see he was back at the bottom of the hill Sky had originally transported them from. All the lights were on in Tails' house in the distance and he could still hear the same song that was playing when he left blaring from the speakers.

"If my calculations are correct." Sky said. "You've only been gone for one second."

"Wow, I guess time travel is awesome." Sonic chuckled as he stared in amazement at how everything was exactly the way they had left it.

Sky giggled. "Yeah. Thank you for helping me."

"No sweat. It was a great adventure." Sonic said.

"Yeah, until I got captured. That was just embarrassing." Sky mumbled in horror as she scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Hey don't worry about that." Sonic reassured her. "You were amazing."

Sky beamed at him and before Sonic could react she had wrapped her arms around him. Sonic stood there in shock for a few seconds before hugging her back. This was what it was like hugging his own daughter? He actually quiet liked it. She was soft and warm in his arms and he felt like he could stay there forever.

"Thanks again." Sky said as she pulled away and looked around. "Hmm, if I did go exploring he'd never know. Thank god for time travel."

Sonic watched the mischievous sparkle in her eye as she looked at the world around her.

"Yeah, but he'd remember if you did. I am here you know." Sonic laughed.

"Oh right, darn it!" Sky hissed. "Maybe time travel isn't so great."

"Is this goodbye then?" Sonic asked actually feeling sad to see her go. She was a funny kid and he would actually love it if she'd stay a few hours longer.

Sky smirked as she twirled the chaos emerald in her hand.

"Not goodbye." She replied. "Just until the future when I'm sure we'll meet again. At least we better anyway!" She suddenly barked out. "You are going straight in there and asking my mom out otherwise where will I be?"

"Ok ok chill!" Sonic begged trying to calm the angry little hedgehog in front of him. "Do me a favour and beat Alex in the race for me ok?"

"Wow dad, putting your kids against each other already huh?" Sky laughed.

"I'm not your dad…yet. Quit calling me that." Sonic cringed at the thought.

Sky rolled her eyes. "Get used to it. Apparently you fainted when mom said she was pregnant with me."

"Really?" Sonic said pulling a face. "Can't imagine why."

Sky sighed. "I guess I'll see you in the future."

"Yeah." Sonic smiled at her before giving her a thumbs up and running towards Tails' house. He stopped on the back porch to turn around and watch Sky leave.

They waved at each other one last time before she disappeared in a bright light. Sonic continued to watch the space she had vanished for a few moments before he heard the back door open behind him.

"Sonic?" The younger Tails asked as he saw Sonic staring into space. "What are you doing out here? Amy said she saw you leave."

Sonic snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh…yeah…I just needed some air." He explained turning to face his twin tailed friend and smiled.

"Happy birthday bro." He said pulling him into a hug much to Tails' surprise. "You're the bestest friend a hedgehog could ever ask for."

Tails stood there in shock. "Did you eat a dodgy chilli dog?"

Sonic released him and shook his head.

"Well…umm thanks, I really appreciate that." Tails replied a little awkwardly, but happily. "Are you sure you're feeling alright, you're acting kind of weird."

"I'm terrific." Sonic said as he headed back inside while Tails blinked at him in shock.

Sonic made his way back into the party and everything looked exactly the same. His friends all looked years younger and were dancing happily and innocently. Sonic was going to do everything he could to protect that happiness. He would change the future and make sure none of the bad things ever happen. Starting with keeping away from that tribe.

Sonic stood as far away from the people who were dancing as possible so he was out of the way and could be left alone to his thoughts. Knuckles looked like he had the same idea as he sat next to him and sipped at his drink.

"You're a great guardian Knuckles." Sonic said out of the blue causing Knuckles to nearly choke on his drink.

"What?" Knuckles choked out.

"You're a great guardian of the master emerald and no one would be better for the job." Sonic answered honestly.

"You're freaking me out Sonic, but thanks anyway." The red echidna replied as he slowly edged away from Sonic and made his way over to Tails where they both started discussing Sonic's sudden weird behaviour.

Sonic continued to gaze at the floor as he felt the presence of someone else sitting next to him.

"Are you ok Sonic?" He heard the bubbly pink hedgehog ask. "You seem a little out of it."

Sonic looked up at the younger Amy, her quills shorter, curse free and a worried look in her eyes as she looked at him.

Sonic cleared his throat. "Yeah I'm fine, just deep in thought."

Amy giggled sounding star struck again and Sonic rolled his eyes.

"So anyway," Amy began timidly as she traced patterns on the chair with the tip of her finger. "A new roller rink opened up in the city and I was wondering if you wanted to check it out with me?"

Sonic had to stop himself from groaning. Here she goes again.

But then Sonic stopped. He thought about what his future self had said to him; about giving Amy a chance. The few dates he'd actually agreed to, he'd missed due to his adventures and he'd never actually been properly alone with Amy to see the real her. He guessed it could hurt…

"Sure Amy." Sonic replied smiling at her and Amy did a double take.

"Really?" She asked in disbelief.

Sonic nodded and Amy squealed and Sonic resisted the urge to cover his ears. He really hoped that he wouldn't live to regret this.

Amy then calmed down and looked at Sonic with a sparkle in her eyes that made Sonic's stomach do a flip.

"Thanks Sonic." She said in a very sincere voice before skipping off to talk to Cream.

Sonic sat there in shock. No bone crushing hugs? No million kisses on his cheek? No marriage proposals? He guessed he really didn't know Amy as well as he thought he did. He thought about Amy in the future and the family that they had made together…could possibly have together. The way his future self looked at her…would he one day look at her like that?

Sonic sighed figuring it would be an adventure to find out.

Maybe there were parts to his future that he didn't want to change after all.

* * *

_~ TO BE CONTINUED ~_

* * *

**Yup, that's right. There will be a sequel that will answer most of your questions as to what the hell some characters were talking about in this story. It will be called 'The Tribal Curse' which will be published later this week or early next week so keep an eye out for it. Feel free to also check out some of my other Sonic stories.**

**Thank you to everyone who has read this story and reviewed it, added it as a favourite etc. If you're still reading months later then still leave a review because I read every single one of them. **

**See you in the future guys ;)**


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